Junior League of San Antonio Community Council 2015-16 Year in Review

Written by Rebekah Elliot, Community Writer, Graphics by Sara Buske, Graphic Designer

This year, the Junior League of San Antonio, Inc. was also able to give over $22,000 to these local non-profits! (Learn more about the grants process on jlsa.org)

American Cancer Society $1,000

The Arc of San Antonio $2,578

Boysville, Inc. $1,300

Roy Maas Youth Alternatives $2,518

University Health System Foundation $2,500

Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of San Antonio, Inc. - Help a Senior $1,500

Kinetic Kids, Inc. $2,500

Good Samaritan Community Service $2,500

YOSA (Youth Orchestras of San Antonio) $2,500

Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of San Antonio, Inc. - Guadalupe Home $2,500

Volunteer Services Council of the San Antonio State Hospital $800

$8,000 was also awarded to local high school arts and music education programs at the 2016 Margaret Tobin FAME Awards!

2015-2016 has been such a wonderfully successful year of giving, volunteering and caring. Cheers to all of the amazing women in Community for accomplishing all of the below and more!

2014 Food Bank SNAP Challenge

By Lesley Vernor, 2014-2015 Let's Go San Antonio Chair

Are you up for the San Antonio Food Bank SNAP Challenge?

There are 3,812,561 people qualified for SNAP in Texas and 262,887 SNAP recipients in Bexar County.

The challenge is trying to provide our families with healthy options for $4.50 a day per person in the household.  The Let’s Go San Antonio team is working with families/children who are receiving services from the Food Bank or SNAP or both (52% receive both).  

The real crux of the challenge is how to teach and implement healthy nutrition choices when a person has a limited income.  

By deciding to participate in the SNAP Challenge, Junior League of San Antonio members, friends and families will have a better understanding of the issue that Let's Go San Antonio is trying to tackle. How can a person, or a family, really eat healthier when on a budget. 

 
Knowing how to do this is vital information that is helpful for our Let’s Go Team to come up with ways to approach the issue and it will be helpful to understand the problems that Challenge participants face while on this limited food budget.

Experience firsthand what  many children in our community are facing on a daily basis. This is the population Let's Go San Antonio is working with in teaching different ways to budget to choose healthier options. 

While participating in the challenge take pictures of meals prepared, shopping items found at area grocer’s that are cheaper and healthier options and share! It will be great for participants to learn from one another where cheaper and healthier options exist in San Antonio!

Did you give it your best effort and it ended up being an epic fail? Share why it didn't work for you.  It validates how difficult it can be to realize what $1.50 per meal really means and why Let's Go San Antonio is so important.

Some have asked "Why $4.50 a day per person?"
The Food Bank told us that $1.50 is a national average for an individual benefit.  The local per meal average is actually lower but we are using our national network’s number at $1.50.  

Share with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and use #JLSAgoesorange, #sagoesorange, #jlsa #safoodbank #snapchallenge. 

Don't use social media? Email us your thoughts on the challenge and photos of any attempts to participate.

Make a pledge to commit the savings back to healthy activities for your family or give back to the Junior League of San Antonio Loyalty Fund or San Antonio Food Bank.

Are you up for the challenge? Awesome, we look forward to hearing from you! 

Still wondering how you could make this work? Check out some online resources and then get back to us:

• SNAP menu and grocery plan (scroll toward bottom of link)

• KENS 5 News Anchor Jeff Goldblatt’s blog about his SNAP Challenge experience 

2014-2015 JLSA Summer Reading Camp

July 13, 2014, by Amanda Shippey

Service to the community does not stop over the summer for the Junior League of San Antonio. In fact, this is the season where one of our life changing projects, Reading Camp, is put on. Reading Camp is an event hosted by the Junior League of San Antonio. This two-week event is dedicated to improving the academic skills of students in San Antonio. "Giggles fill the air as wide-eyed children stare at the reader with a sense of wonder. Students find a new found joy in reading and writing.  They blossom with curiosity!” Elizabeth Kreager, Reading Camp Volunteer explains the atmosphere for this remarkable event.

Holding this camp is crucial to developing the skills of students over the summer. “Studies show that children experience a decline in their reading level over the summer months.  The Junior League tries to help bridge that gap by providing books to these children." Reading Camp chair, Samantha Beyer tells us. Leading us to believe that implementation of this camp is crucial to improving the lives of San Antonio area children.

Students that attended camp this year were immersed in a curriculum full of reading, science, arts and crafts. The two week course focused on a central theme, habitats. When the camp concluded, students were able to take home a bag full of goodies, a t-shirt, and 9 books to help them continue building their literacy skills.

Women Building Better Community Gardens

My good friend and fellow JLSA volunteer, Shannyn Romero, sent me a text last Wednesday morning. She asked me if I would post some pictures to the JLSA website that she planned on sending me later that day. Not knowing what she was up to, I asked her if her photos were "blogworthy," because I've been crazy busy at work and have had a bit of writer's block. I wasn't sure what my next post would be about. And, as luck would have it, this week's blog found me! How remarkable. Serendipity. Shannyn is the Co-Chair of this year's brand new community placement, Green Spaces Alliance. She spent last Wednesday, along with a bunch of other League and non-League volunteers, making over a 65,000-square-foot community garden on Center Street, on the East side of town.

Green Spaces Alliance of South Texas' mission is "to sustain the natural environment and enhance urban spaces through land conservation, community engagement and education." A key feature of its mission is its Community Gardens Program, which endeavors to start and maintain community gardens, which it defines as "places where people can gather with neighbors, exercise, educate children, find fresh produce, grow beautiful flowers, and preserve San Antonio's green space."

Later that day, just as she promised, Shannyn sent me "before" and "after" photos of the amazing work she and others did to transform this urban space.

Before.

After.

Shannyn is passionate about being involved and helping our community, and it just seems to emanate from within her. She texted me: "...today with the sweat pouring down my face I found myself thinking about actually being a part of something bigger than JLSA, or even San Antonio. Fiskars brought down 10 people from Wisconsin and spent $45,000 to do one little community garden. I think in total there were 60 people there today. Home Depot had a huge team since they were part of the sponsorship. It was cool."

It is cool. Cool and hot at the same time, because temperatures hovered around 101 on August 15. As I read her text and peered at the photos on my cellphone, I thought of my friend, working hard in the heat along with 11 other JLSA volunteers and a bunch of other hard-working folks while she contemplated how profoundly awesome it is to be a part of something that pushes even beyond what the Junior League's mission is all about. They funneled energy, love and care into this small spot in our community and simultaneously made our whole world a better place. I felt proud of her, of the great things that she and her fellow volunteers accomplished, and of the things that JLSA volunteers all accomplish through passion, hard work and dedication. I also felt a little guilty to be sitting in my office with the A/C on full blast!

There is a great article and video clip here about the project if you'd like to know more about it. 

What are you doing this year to build better communities with energy and passion? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below or just text me, like Shannyn did. ;)