The Lee County Soup Kitchen, Meals on Wheels, Faith in Action and Hand & Hearts Montessori Preschool - Press releases and special events
CCMI’s Owen named Top 10 in Energizer Keep Going® Hall of Fame
7 Jul 2010 Author: mcreative In: General Info
FORT MYERS, Fla. (July 7, 2010) – Sarah Owen, CEO of Community Cooperative Ministries Inc., shares definite similarities with the Energizer Bunny® and the folks at Energizer have agreed. Owen has been named one of the top 10 finalists in the 2010 Energizer Keep Going® Hall of Fame.
CCMI’s Free Food Friday coming to Cape Coral
7 Jul 2010 Author: mcreative In: General InfoMobile Food Pantry rolls into Cape Coral United Way House on Friday, July 9 at 10 a.m.
FORT MYERS, Fla. (July 7, 2010) – Last summer Community Cooperative Ministries Inc. along with a team of community partner agencies, fed more than 20,000 hungry individuals across Southwest Florida through its mobile food pantry. This summer, the mobile food pantry is once again being utilized to feed the hungry in our area at a different location each Friday.
5th Annual Becoming Cosmopolitan Event Announced
25 Jun 2010 Author: mcreative In: General Info
Women’s event benefiting hungry in our community scheduled
for Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010
FORT MYERS, Fla. (June 25, 2010) – A giant martini glass stopping traffic; red-carpeted live auction and stage areas; hundreds of women decked out in to-die-for outfits and plenty of silent and live auction items for every budget. It’s all part of Community Cooperative Ministries Inc.’s annual Becoming Cosmopolitan event.
Target employees volunteer at CCMI’s Soup Kitchen
22 Jun 2010 Author: mcreative In: General Info
FORT MYERS, Fla. (June 22, 2010) – Fifteen Target employees from stores across Southwest Florida recently spent a day donating their time to Community Cooperative Ministries Inc.’s Soup Kitchen.
The volunteers helped prepare a nutritious noontime meal as well as meals to be delivered by CCMI’s Meals on Wheels drivers.
The News-Press Editorial: Marketplace gives hungry people selection
16 Jun 2010 Author: mcreative In: General Infohttp://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010100603052
The aisles are full of food — cereals, coffee, pasta and milk — and there’s a place in the back for fresh produce and even cakes.
Hungry people can go in and choose the foods they want to feed their families. This is a different model from the bread lines and food pantries of the past, and that’s the point.
Community Cooperative Ministries Inc.’s new Everyday Marketplace is an innovative way to feed people who may have never known what it’s like to be hungry — the “new hungry” — and are just looking to sustain themselves so they can get back on their feet.
The marketplace had its grand opening Thursday at CCMI, on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which also runs the Soup Kitchen, a Montessori school and Meals on Wheels. It’s a great benefit to the community.
CCMI CEO Sarah Owen says the marketplace is part of a way “to reimagine the way we deliver services to this community.”
Among other benefits, food waste is expected to be reduced by 50 percent.
Owen often espouses CCMI’s philosophy that food is a “gateway” to providing critical social services people need, such as rent assistance, food aid and mental health services.
Many contractors, agencies and individuals donated time and money for this project.
Congratulations to CCMI for opening the marketplace. Continue the innovation.
Volunteers needed to read to Montessori preschoolers
16 Jun 2010 Author: mcreative In: General Info
FORT MYERS, Fla. (June 15, 2010) – Reading to children increases their vocabulary and helps kids develop into readers. That is why Community Cooperative Ministries Hands and Hearts Montessori Preschool started a new volunteer reading program at the end of each week.
Each Friday between 10:45 a.m. and 2:15 p.m., the preschool invites community volunteers to Drop Everything And Read (D.E.A.R.) to children in their school.
CCMI’s Owen named top 100 in Energizer Keep Going contest
14 Jun 2010 Author: mcreative In: General Info
FORT MYERS, Fla. (June 14, 2010) – Anyone who has met Sarah Owen, CEO of Community Cooperative Ministries Inc., would agree she shares definite similarities with the Energizer Bunny® because she keeps going and going.
The folks at Energizer agree and have named her one of the 100 semifinalists in the 2010 Energizer Keep Going® Hall of Fame contest.
Summer volunteers needed for CCMI
10 Jun 2010 Author: mcreative In: General InfoFORT MYERS, Fla. (June 10, 2010) – Now that winter residents have returned to their northern homes, Community Cooperative Ministries Inc. is in need of volunteers to support their numerous programs and services.
Fort Myers pantry lets needy pick food items
7 Jun 2010 Author: mcreative In: General Info
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010100606011
Zarifer King was pleasantly surprised when she stepped into the Everyday Marketplace in Fort Myers.
“It’s like a grocery store,” she said. “Most of the time you go to a food pantry and they give you things you don’t eat.” Read the rest of this entry »
Fleming joins CCMI
4 Jun 2010 Author: mcreative In: General Info
FORT MYERS, Fla. (June 4, 2010) – Nationally acclaimed speaker, author and leadership coach Dr. Dave Fleming has joined Community Cooperative Ministries Inc. to oversee strategic leadership development and social services for the agency.
About CCMI
Community Cooperative Ministries (CCMI) was incorporated in 1984, and has long been a driving force in the Fort Myers community, providing food to homeless and nearly homeless, as well as emergency groceries and affordable childcare to the working poor. In July of 2006 the agency expanded its mission and outreach to Lee County by merging with agencies that had historically provided home delivered meals to the homebound hungry (Meals on Wheels), and transportation services to the frail elderly (Faith In Action) and The Soup Kitchen. This merger created an agency that is able to provide comprehensive, unduplicated services to the homeless, nearly homeless, homebound, seniors and children more effectively, more efficiently and with greater compassion than at any other time in the former agencies histories.