How to Help People in your Community Feel they Belong
Thanks to Fran Lytle of Brand Champs for this fantastic guest post!
Belonging is a powerful motivational driver for all human beings. When we feel we belong to something, we feel that we’re part of something bigger and more important than ourselves. That’s why community is so important.
We live in a community, but are we active participants? What are we doing to make our community a better place to live … to help others feel that important motivational driver of belonging? We need to soul search and be honest with ourselves.
Have we walked past a homeless person and averted our eyes? Have we talked louder on our cell and walked faster when a panhandler asks for money? Have we thought about how difficult summer is for children who live in food insecure families that aren’t getting their free school lunches but haven’t done anything to help?
At some time in our life, we’ve probably been guilty of enjoying belonging to a community, but not helping others to feel that they belonged. So, how can we help others feel that they belong? By becoming involved in, or starting, a program that will make people feel loved, cared for and valued.
My husband Bill and I did this in our community of Chincoteague Island VA in 2017. We’re the founders of Manna Café CI. With a group of loving, caring, hard-working volunteers, we serve a free hot lunch every Monday to all people in our community. We started Manna Café to help people who are food insecure and it evolved to be what the residents of this island wanted … a place where people can enjoy a freshly made lunch, socialization and feel that they belong to a community that cares.
The lunch is served from 11am until 1pm every Monday in a church social hall. When we started on the 1st Monday in 2017, we served 16 guests. On Memorial Day of 2018, we served 481 guests. Manna has also evolved to add another community service … delivering free hot lunches to homebound people and visiting with them. These people aren’t able to leave their homes, so we make them feel they belong to our community by sharing food and fellowship during each visit. We deliver 40-50 lunches each week.
Manna Café guests represent all races, ethnicities, ages and household incomes. We help food insecure people by serving them lunch in the hall; packing up lunches for them to take with them to eat later in the day; and by having food and toiletries on our “Take Table” for them to take home to help them through the week. Manna Café helps them to feel they belong to a community that cares.
Our guests include elderly people who enjoy coming out once a week to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. For many, Manna Café is their only social outing of the week. Since we started Manna Café, our community has also started holding events at 1pm, so guests can continue their socialization after lunch. The Chincoteague Cultural Alliance offers Bingo the last Monday of every month after the Manna Café lunch. The Chincoteague Island Library offers adult coloring after Manna Café the other 3 Mondays of the month. And, the Chincoteague Island Cultural Alliance has opened a facility where people can play cards and board games after enjoying their Manna Café lunch.
During the summer months, we serve more children. They’re out of school and aren’t getting their free breakfast and/or lunch. They walk and bike to the hall to enjoy a lunch in the air-conditioned hall. We collect school supplies throughout the summer and the children can select school supplies during the month of August.
At Manna Café, we also welcome anyone who wants to volunteer. Some of our volunteers are high school special education students; people with physical difficulties; and students with disabilities that need work experience so they can obtain a job when they graduate.
These are all examples of how Manna Café is helping people in our community feel a sense of belonging.
So, what can you do in your community to help people feel they belong?
Fran & Bill Lytle are the Co-founders & Directors of the non-profit feeding program Manna Café CI, Inc. in Chincoteague, Virginia and the brand strategy group Brand Champs.
