COMMON HEART INC

Families in poverty cannot build resources without stabilizing the present. Common Heart helps stabilize the present by providing access to food, while connecting the families that we serve to our economic empowerment programs to bring stability and self-sufficiency to those in poverty. Participants in Common Heart’s economic empowerment programs are not taught. Instead, they discover through a facilitated process that helps to develop the cognitive and soft skills needed to negotiate a transition out of poverty.

We offer 4 traditional food pantries each week featuring government commodities through the USDA’s The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). In addition, we provide fresh produce and baked goods. Families must be Union County residents and qualify under this government program to receive food. Our on-the-go mobile pantries provide additional opportunities for families to receive food throughout the year. There are no restrictions for visiting mobile pantries. Our relationship-based delivery pantry operates out of our locations in Indian Trail and Marshville to serve individuals who cannot attend traditional or mobile food pantries due to hardships.

Our introductory economic empowerment program, Getting Ahead (GA), consists of a 42.5-hour facilitated group with leaders of households earning less than 200% of FPL. Last year our offerings grew from 2 groups to 6. During GA, participants investigate poverty in their lives and community. They receive a $35 Walmart gift card persession, free childcare during groups and free dinner.

Stability & Growth workshops are resource building opportunities designed for families experiencing poverty. These workshops include Money & Me financial literacy workshop, Escaping Relational Drama, Hidden Rules of Class in the Workplace, and the Power of Negotiation. We will also be offering Working Smart Certification through a partnership with South Piedmont Community College.

The Emergency Savings Incentive Program is a 6-18 month follow-through program that builds upon the initial Getting Ahead experience. ESIP includes life-coaching, resource-building workshops, and opportunities to build social capital and supportive relationships for economic stability and growth. Once the requirements have been met, participants receive a $500 deposit into a savings account at a banking institution of their choice. Working toward this incentive provides a concrete motivation to invest time working to achieve their goals. For many of our participants it is the first savings account they have ever had. Due to the tripling of Getting Ahead groups and an increase in completion rates, we are seeing our ESIP program participants grow accordingly. We expect over 30 will complete it in 2023.

Common Heart's mission is to foster individual and community engagement to feed hungry families and empower those in poverty, creating a sustainable community where all can thrive. We accomplish this through partnerships within our community to deliver all our programming.

Our locations in Indian Trail and Marshville focus primarily on Union County and southeast Mecklenburg County of the Charlotte Metropolitan area. Common Heart serves individuals throughout Union County in partnership with local organizations who provide strategic program space and service to reach as many families as possible. Common Heart has multiple established partnerships in the communities of Indian Trail, Waxhaw, Wesley Chapel, Matthews, Hemby Bridge, Monroe, Wingate and Marshville.

Common Heart's 10 food pantry programs engage an average of 420 monthly volunteers in partnership with Mill Grove UMC, Benton Heights Presbyterian Church, Wingate Baptist Church, Union UMC, Mineral Springs UMC, Amazing Grace ELCA, Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church, Elizabeth Missionary Baptist Church and Weddington Methodist Church. Common Heart’s goal is to expand our partnerships across Union County to break down the barriers to services and access to resources.

Common Heart’s economic empowerment programs partners include the Community Church of Monroe, Stallings UMC, First Presbyterian (Monroe), SignPost Ministries nonprofit co-working space, Communiversity, and City of Monroe Parks and Recreation Community Center. Programming partnerships include South Piedmont Community College - Human Resource Development, Monroe Union County Community Development - Credit & Homebuying, Cooperative Extension of Union County - Healthy Eating on a Budget, and The Well - WOMB (Women on a Mission Boldly). Our professional certified life-coaching services are provided through an MOU with Conversation Books, LLC.

Free tax preparation is provided annually in partnership with Community Link.

Additional collaborations and partnerships include the Food Council of Union County, and Thrive! Union NC, which seeks to increase collaboration in our community across sectors and classes on issues of poverty and upward mobility.

We have been serving the community for 17 years. We have developed successful knowledge and skills in food pantry and economic mobility service programming. Common Heart’s success is not only in the management of these programs, but also in the way that we fund the program through sustainable gifts and the utilization of volunteer services. Our organization’s capacity to serve through a wide breadth of programs is through our volunteer relationships and service programs. We are the largest regular provider of food pantry programs in Union County. We have a depth of service, through 10 collaborative food pantry programs. Our food program is supported by Second Harvest, TEFAP USDA funding, and grocery store food rescue programs. Through these continued partnerships we are helping to provide a weeks’ worth of groceries for each family we serve to supplement their basic needs. This is an ongoing service for our families, and our mission is to continue providing food service until that family comes to a more stable situation.

We are the only certified trainers for the Bridges out of Poverty programs in our county. Our capability to include institutions, organizations, and leaders in the Bridges Out of Poverty and Getting Ahead framework helps create a community of one common language and strategy to serve those in poverty throughout Union County. As our Thrive! Union Coalition continues to grow we will have the opportunity to create a collaborative environment serve through more organizations and communities.

Common Heart has been providing Getting Ahead since 2017. We have successfullyincreased our number of classes from 2 to 6 a year during 2022. We have increased our completion rate from 50% to 60%. We began providing Bridges Out of Poverty based programming in 2014. Since that time, we have maintained ongoing certifications in the Bridges framework which is the basis of our GA, ESIP, and other programming. Since initiating our ESIP program we have produced 25 recipients over at 24-month time frame. These successes are because of an amazing dedicated staff and volunteers who in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, increased our pantry service from 7 outlets too 10, and increased the number served from 7,500 in 2019 to 17,500 in 2020.


We do not do anything on our own. We collaborate with other organizations, and develop a community based strategy. The more collaborative relationships we develop the more people we serve. Utilizing the Bridges out of Poverty constructs we bring together people across the economic spectrum and beyond institutional silos. One face of this is Thrive! Union first convened in December 2018. Thrive! Union is a developing coalition representing 30 organizations actively working on identify and correcting the gaps in service to our community. We have provided Bridges Out of Poverty training and Poverty Simulation experience to over 300 members of our community. We know we are making progress as we come together throughout are community addressing economic mobility.