This Year's Project: CULTURE-FRIENDLY CUPBOARD
About Our Organization
Since 1921, Mary J. Treglia Community House has helped Sioux City’s struggling foreign-born become U.S. citizens and build better lives. Today we continue to provide the region’s newcomers with key services:
· legal and humanitarian assistance for immigrants,
· a full range of refugee resettlement services,
· family services to help immigrants and refugees navigate life in their new community,
· interpretation and translation services, and
· education services—citizenship classes, English Language Learning, and a fully accredited preschool.
We provide newcomers with the tools they need not only to become U.S. citizens but also to become self-sufficient. What's more, we prepare immigrants and refugees to rent and purchase homes, attend schools, work for employers, and make purchases throughout our city. As a result, their presence expands our economy and their perspectives enrich our community.
Current Project: CULTURE-FRIENDLY CUPBOARD
We believe no family should go hungry.
And yet even in our community, food insecurity is a way of life for many immigrants and refugees.
We want to change this.
Our CULTURE-FRIENDLY CUPBOARD will provide Mary J. Treglia Community House clients (newcomers to our community from other countries) with needed nonperishable food items such as rice, pasta, dried beans, cooking oil, baking essentials, coffee, tea, and other ethnic food staples. If funding allows, we hope to provide a space for refrigerated items such as milk, eggs, produce, and meat.
Our clients often come to Siouxland with almost nothing except the desire to create a better life for themselves and their families. We offer support as they navigate new cultural norms, attend our English Language Learning classes, find employment, and create community. They are motivated, responsible, and driven to work hard—yet at the beginning they often need help putting food on their tables.
Will you help us help them?
Q: Why is this project important?
A: As we’re serving more newcomers to our community than ever before, we’re challenged and compelled to ensure they have food—and especially food that is familiar to them. Here’s why: Having a meal that tastes like home can make a world of difference….especially when you’re a world away from home.
Q: How can gifts of all amounts make a difference?
A: The CULTURE-FRIENDLY CUPBOARD will stock needed nonperishable ethnic food staples, including rice, pasta, dried beans, coffee, tea, cooking oil, and other essentials. Consider this list of a few common items:
$20 buys FIVE bags of MASECA corn flour for our shelves
$50 buys a 50-lb. bag of rice, which feeds a large family for a month
$120 stocks our shelves with TEN 12-lb. bags of dried black beans
$950 buys a refrigerator to hold donated eggs & produce
Q: Why do immigrants and refugees face higher rates of food insecurity than other population segments (SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health)?
A: There are many reasons. Here are a few:
• Their neighborhoods often lack full-service grocery stores, forcing them to shop at gas stations and convenience stores that are expensive and lack healthy food options.
• When they’re just starting out, many refugees and immigrants simply can’t afford high grocery prices; they may have to choose between paying for rent and buying food.
• If they are still learning English, immigrants and refugees often don’t know where or how to access resources like food pantries and community kitchens.
• Many traditional food pantries may require documentation or ask newcomers to read and sign paperwork, which are big asks for those who are learning the language and/or working to become citizens.
Q: How will the CULTURE-FRIENDLY CUPBOARD be sustained?
A: To start, a generous match from Farm Credit Services doubles the impact of BIG GIVE gifts. To sustain the CULTURE-FRIENDLY CUPBOARD, we will seek additional grant funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other sources. We also anticipate donations from individuals, local grocers, ethnic suppliers, and Farmers Market vendors (many of them once immigrants themselves!) that will stretch our resources in important ways.
Library Lunch Room
Project Details
MJTCH is seeking funds to assist the Preschool in completing its Library Lunch Room along with putting in additional safety measures in order to keep our children safe including Police Panic Buttons, covering for our outside fencing where the children can see out without others seeing in. Also, it is our hope to make a temporary wall permanent so that others can simply walk down a hallway and right into our PreSchool. Based on a recent health and safety inspection by the state of Iowa, we are very proud to share that we rank among the highest in safety ratings of all preschools in the Siouxland area. These small, but, important additions will help us remain in the top tier.
Our Library Lunch Room will be completed to include books in several languages as well as activities for the children to do around their lunch time. It will give them a space that is separate from their classroom. This allows the staff to continue to work on new experiences and developing new skills.
Finally, MJTCH shares this story of a child who, after attending our preschool, was placed in another center. The little girl struggled to adjust to her new environment. Her parents reached out asking for their daughter to return to Mary Treglia's Preschool. We welcomed her back with open arms. As time passed, the child's laughter echoed through our classrooms, her spirit thrived, and she embraced every learning opportunity with eager curiosity. Soon, with confidence, this bright young soul, was ready to spread her wings and take flight into the world of kindergarten. Mary Treglia's Preschool will always be a place of love, laughter, and learning, a home away from home for countless children and their families.
Continuing the Mission
Project Details
Our mission at Mary J. Treglia Community House is to welcome, educate, empower, and advocate for all new Siouxlanders. We see our mission through by responding to the needs of the immigrant population through our legal services, English Language Learning classes, Citizenship classes, translation services, and family/refugee assistance services. No day is the same here at Mary J. Treglia Community House and because of this, we are committed to addressing the barriers each of our clients may face. Our goal is for each individual we serve to feel empowered and self-sufficient. Each donation we receive helps another individual with reaching this goal. Please help us continue offering the essential services to the Siouxland community that we have since 1921.
Support Afghan Refugees
Project Details
Nearly 6 million Afghans have been driven out of their homes and their country by conflict, violence, and poverty. We witnessed this violence intensify and spread throughout Afghanistan recently. Since January, more than 550,000 Afghans have been forcibly displaced. Many people have suffered physical or emotional trauma as Afghanistan transitioned to Taliban rule.
Having just experienced the loss of homes, communities, and livelihoods, newly arriving Afghans now face the challenges of resettling in a new country. Helping these families become part of their new communities will call for partnerships across government, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), businesses, faith-based groups, schools, healthcare providers, and community volunteers.
Mary J Treglia Community House (MJTCH) has a long history of resettling refugee families and has agreed to assist up to 50 individuals from Afganastan to call Siouxland home. With the help from you, we know these families will feel welcome, safe and will be able to begin their journey in making Siouxland the place they will thrive. Please donate today.
Education Programs at MJTCH
Project Details
Funds raised through the Siouxland BigGive will support the many education programs at MJTCH such as adult English Language classes, Preschool for 3-5 year olds, and educational workshops for our community.