March Madness At SPAN

The month of March for many is synonymous with March Madness. For those of us at SPAN, March signals the beginning of our own version of March Madness! Two significant things are happening this month.

First, this is the month for SPAN’s Easter Caring program. Each spring, we provide Easter dinner boxes or grocery gift cards for a holiday meal to families in need in the area. Our hope is to provide a dinner box or gift card to all the families we serve in the coming month. If you would like to support this program, we are accepting donations of either grocery gift cards or Easter dinner boxes. Giant, Safeway and Visa gift cards are preferred.

If your family or group would like to provide an Easter dinner box, this can be a meaningful activity to do together.

Please include the following items in the box: a $25 grocery gift card for meat; four cans of green beans; one jar of minced garlic; one large box of mashed potatoes or potatoes au gratin; three cans of carrots; one bag of brown sugar; two boxes of deluxe mac and cheese; one honey cornbread mix; one small vegetable oil; and a dessert such as brownie mix, cake mix and frosting, or cheesecake mix.

If you would like to make the box even more special, you can also include a few breakfast items such as pancake mix with syrup, a package of fully cooked bacon, Easter candies, sugar cookie mix with sprinkles, or party plates. Please pack the food in a canvas tote bag or heavy-duty box.

If possible, all gift cards and dinner boxes should be dropped off at SPAN (behind Our Shepherd Lutheran Church) by Monday, March 23. If that is not possible, we can accept these donations the following week as well. Our office is open Monday through Thursday between 9:00am and 2:30pm.

The month of March is also significant because it marks the end of a two-month moratorium on BGE shutoffs. In the coming weeks, we at SPAN will likely experience a deluge of clients with utility turnoff notices. The Public Service Commission issued a moratorium on BGE turnoffs for the months of January and February due to concerns about the BGE call center. The moratorium ended on February 28.

Therefore, those people who were potentially facing a turnoff will now receive a much higher bill than what they would have received in the past two months. The higher turnoff bill will make it more difficult for low-income clients to collect the funds needed to avoid being disconnected.

Most of our clients at SPAN are seeking emergency financial assistance with utility turnoffs, evictions or limited medical expenses. We help hundreds of families each year with these needs.

If you would like to help with this critical need and make a financial donation to SPAN, there are several ways to do so. Donating online? We accept all forms of online payment. Simply go to www.spanhelps.org to donate. Or you can mail a check to SPAN at P.O. Box 626, Severna Park, MD 21146. All donations are tax-deductible and are used to provide financial assistance to clients unless otherwise designated.

We can only do what we do with the continued support of donors like you! Thank you for considering a donation today.

SPAN (Serving People Across Neighborhoods) is an independent nonprofit food pantry and emergency services provider that has been helping local families with eviction prevention, utility turnoffs, medical/prescription bills, and food since 1990. For more information, call 410-647-0889, email spanhelps@yahoo.com or visit www.spanhelps.org.