“Our goal is to provide people walking along life’s edge with what they need to move forward.”
It was a chance visit to her local supermarket back in 1999 that led Fran Held, a Pennsylvania wife and Mom, into a world she never imagined. While making a purchase in the bakery department she witnessed the manager preparing to toss a perfectly beautiful sheet cake into the garbage because of a crack in the icing. With so many hungry people nearby, Fran could not imagine something like this happening. Even more astounding was the manager’s admission that they routinely tossed leftovers at the close of business each and every day.
Spurred on by this revelation, Fran asked the manager if he would donate those leftovers if volunteers arrived on schedule each day to pick-up. When he agreed, Fran went into action and organized a group of volunteers who ran daily pick-ups and delivered to local shelters and pantries in the area.
The Mitzvah Circle Foundation is the natural outcome from those earliest days of food rescue. Today, Fran’s passion to help people living “on the edge” includes numerous other programs made possible by a large contingent of local volunteers who represent many different segments of the larger community. Each program, whether it addresses the needs of homeless people, those with insufficient food, individuals in crisis or those dealing with serious illness, a diaper bank or school supplies for children from families that cannot afford the materials needed for effective learning, is facilitated with a deeply personal and compassionate focus.
This program is maintained on a shoe-string budget with low administrative costs and (mostly) gifts-in-kind. The Good People Fund offered funding which allowed Fran to purchase new computers and updated software (she had been using donated out-of-date machines), a copy machine, telephone system, additional materials (tables, chairs, telephone) for her donated warehouse space as well as a fund for emergency client needs as they arise. As can be imagined, Fran reports that things are running much more smoothly now!
