Urban Ministries of Durham connects with the community to end homelessness and fight poverty by offering food, shelter and a future to neighbors in need.
UMD welcomes all neighbors regardless of race, ethnicity, religious beliefs or non-faith, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
Urban Ministries of Durham has lost a great friend. Leon Levine, founder of Family Dollar and Carolina-area philanthropist, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 85. In recent years, Mr. Levine expanded his charitable grants beyond the Charlotte area into the Triangle region. Since 2018, The Leon Levine Foundation has awarded over half a million dollars toward UMD’s mission of offering food, shelter, and a future to neighbors in need here in Durham. In that time, gifts through his foundation helped 899 individuals move out of homelessness and into permanent housing and provided 1.15 million meals through our Community Café. What an amazing impact! We are so grateful for Mr. Levine and are inspired by his example to give back to the most vulnerable within our society. May his memory comfort his family and loved ones, and his influence continue to reach those in need.
We're so thankful to have friends who will go to the mattresses for us--literally! Thank you to Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church and Durham Merchants Association Charitable Foundation for funding 47 new commercial-grade bunk beds and 65 mattresses. A good night's sleep is so important for our neighbors who stay at UMD--especially since the majority have physically demanding jobs. Thanks, friends!
Thank you to the Annie P. Rogers State Grand Assembly Order of the Golden Circle! The group invited our Director of Development, Joe Daly, to share about UMD’s mission at their annual gathering on Saturday. Their President, Eleanor Dillard, presented a $500 donation on behalf of the organization to help neighbors in need at UMD. A Café volunteer with Community Baptist, Eleanor knows first-hand the impact of UMD’s services here in Durham. We are so thankful when friends like Eleanor can use their networks to make their own impact on the community—by making a donation together!
SNAP's emergency COVID funds are set to expire today. The program offered a boosted amount of funds to some 900,000 qualified households receiving food stamps. If you need food assistance, UMD is still offering food pantry services on Tuesdays from 9:30am-11:30am in the parking lot of St. Philip's Episcopal Church Durham, NC (403 E. Main Street). Eligibility requirements are temporarily suspended. We simply request that you wear a mask.
Tina Turner wants to know. What's love got to do with it? We would argue it counts for a lot. How we welcome our neighbors is one of the ways we can love them well. At UMD, we welcome all neighbors regardless of race, ethnicity, religious beliefs or non-faith, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. How is that love, you ask? That love looks a lot like respect--one of our core values. Respecting one another is how we can love others from the core of our humanity to the depths of our individual differences. Celebrate love today by making a gift in honor of your neighbors to our Let's House Durham campaign. Donate here: http://letshousedurham.org/
🎤 Today, Dennis has the mic. Hear his thoughts on the struggle to find affordable housing--and fight stereotypes. One of the ways you can help? Buy a brick for our Let's House Durham campaign for $15.76. Check out the campaign website here: https://letshousedurham.org/ Want to learn more? Read last week's posts from Wanda and Cynthia. You can also read the Annual Report on our webpage: https://umdurham.org/.../12/UMD_Annual-Report_Digital.pdf
“There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.” --Dr. King, Nobel Peace Prize lecture, 1964 This reality is the foundation of UMD's #LetsHouseDurham campaign. If every man, woman, and child in Durham gives just $15.76, it represents the cost of paying for every homeless person in our community to be housed for one year. When you look at homelessness this way, Dr. King is right. We have the resources to get rid of it. Join the campaign--or cover the costs of others--so that we can meet our goal of representing everyone in Durham! Make your gift today at www.LetsHouseDurham.org.
🎤 Today, we're passing the mic on to Cynthia. This is what she had to share about the current struggle to get affordable housing. One of the ways you can help? Buy a brick for our Let's House Durham campaign for $15.76. Check out the campaign website here: https://letshousedurham.org/ Want to learn more? Read yesterday's post about Wanda. You can also read the Annual Report on our webpage: https://umdurham.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/UMD_Annual-Report_Digital.pdf