Part of Community Forklift’s mission is to provide free and low-cost materials to the community. Through the Home Essentials Program (HELP), we distribute free building materials, fixtures, appliances, and furniture to households with limited incomes. We are proud to announce that in the first half of 2022 we’ve provided $44,492.40 in materials through the HELP program!
The HELP program is a low-barrier service, meaning we try to keep our grants as accessible and flexible as possible. We assist seniors, families, people with disabilities, veterans, people going through crisis or transitioning from homelessness, people who are struggling to afford repairs on the family home, and people who are working to make their homes safer and more comfortable.
In response to the pandemic in 2020, we began a free delivery service for HELP clients, ensuring that people who can’t leave their homes can still get their materials while minimizing the spread of COVID-19. We’ve continued that service and so far in 2022 we’ve made 53 deliveries.
Those 53 deliveries are a small portion of the total number of people who have benefited from the HELP program so far this year. In total we’ve served 326 people in 104 households and provided a wide variety of materials, including 47 large appliances, 52 small appliances, 249 furniture pieces, 157 housewares, and 1,271 building materials.
We look forward to helping more neighbors in need in the second half of the year and beyond. You can help us with that goal by donating materials or funds to Community Forklift today. Thank you for the support!
Every time you donate or shop at Community Forklift, you’re helping us lift up local communities through reuse. We turn the construction waste stream into a resource stream for communities in the DC region – by keeping perfectly good items out of the landfill, preserving historical materials, providing low-cost building supplies, and creating local green jobs.
