Meet one of our newest Hands On Hunger pantries - Stella Love Non-Profit!

Stella Love Non-Profit is a Georgia-based non-profit organization that first started by distributing hot & ready meals to the homeless in downtown Atlanta. Now they have grown to provide services to single-parent households, low-income families, children, youth, and many more!

Every month they may serve anywhere from 100 to 300 families, and families say “when you walk into the office, you can feel the love.” Learn more about Stella Love Non-Profit, and how you can help below!

Tell us about why you applied to the Hands On Hunger Program and what you're goals are for the next two years.

We applied to the Hands On Hunger Program because we believed with this program's help, we could dramatically improve the overall structure of our organization. This improvement would allow us to more efficiently handle our returning and new volunteers as well as our ability to help our clients better than before

Tell us about your organization - what's your mission, and how does it impact our community?

Stella Love Non-Profit cares for children, low-income families, single-parent households, and unhoused individuals who need help. We are motivated by the love of God and hope to provide optimism for the future and an environment where all those we are struggling can look to us for support; to be a lifeline for them while they return to socioeconomic stability.

“If you ever find yourself in need of extra food, this is the place to go!”

— Dolores Colon

What's the history of your organization? How and why did it get started?

Stella Love Non-Profit is a Georgia-based non-profit organization that first started by distributing hot & ready meals to the homeless in downtown Atlanta. We have grown to provide services to single-parent households, low-income families, children, youth, and many more individuals who require assistance to get by. This organization was founded because of Stella Love's desire to help those who are experiencing financial hardships. After going through a period of homelessness and financial hardship herself, she knows firsthand how hard it can be to climb back up to stability. That's why she founded this organization—to help others climb back up too.

How do volunteers support your mission? What impact do they have on your work? What is possible through the support of volunteers that would not be possible otherwise?

Stella Love Non-Profit has relied heavily on volunteers who have supported our programs since our inception. Volunteers are crucial in Stella Love’s ability to provide quality social services for the entire community. Volunteers are valuable assets, and efforts to meet the changing needs of our community. Through the skills and experience they bring to us, volunteers make significant contributions to society by positively impacting the lives of those we assist, such as providing more groceries to low-income families and single-parent households or distributing food to multitudes of homeless individuals in downtown Atlanta.

What community problem is your organization trying to solve? Can you tell us more about the issue?

The community problem we are trying to solve is financial burden and hunger. Many individuals in our community live in low-income households and experience the burden of having to use their relatively small income for several financial responsibilities. So, we intend to alleviate some of those financial responsibilities by lessening their need to spend their funds on necessities such as food, clothing, and other household items.

“Food insecurity is touching the lives of more people than ever. The choice often has to be made to buy food or keep the utilities on. Stella Love nonprofit makes it possible for my family to know we will have nutritious food no matter how limited our funds might be any given week. Stella and volunteers, you are a true blessing”

— Rosalyn Smith

What kind of programming do you offer the community?

Family Aid, Feed the Homeless, and Free Food Distribution are our main programs; however, in the local community, the program we conduct most often is our Free Food Distribution where families come to our office to collect food that we receive from stores such as Publix and Costco.

What types of projects do you offer? Tell us about a few different offerings. Do you have monthly or weekly recurringopportunities? How about your seasonal or annual events?

Family Aid, Feed the Homeless, and Free Food Distribution are our main programs. Family Aid is a program that focuses on helping low-income families and single-parent households that are struggling to make ends meet by providing groceries and other necessities. Feed the Homeless is where we travel to downtown Atlanta to provide food, clothing, hygiene packs, and other goods to the unhoused. Lastly, Feed Food Distribution is where we redistribute the food given to us by our partners such as Publix, Costco, and Atlanta Community Food Bank to the local community. Also, we commit ourselves to hosting annual, recurring holiday specials (i.e., Easter Egg Hunt, Back-To-School Giveaway, Thanksgiving Giveaway, Breakfast with Santa, Christmas Giveaway) and weekly bread and sandwich distributions.

“Stella love non-profit has been amazing my niece’s and nephews love going to the events they have and participate in the activities I come and get food every other week I enjoy seeing everyone’s smile when I come up to get my food. The volunteers are awesome.”

— Nesha Clark

Tell us about what it's like to serve with your organization. How many volunteers do you host every month?

Every month, depending on the events that we conduct each month, we could host between 15 to 50 volunteers in total.

What keeps volunteers coming back to serve with your organization?

We believe volunteers keep coming back to serve with us due to our fun atmosphere, variety of event opportunities that provide a different experience each time, and our consistent volunteer appreciation such as donuts, water, T-shirts, and more!

Tell us about how volunteers can jump in and get involved. How can they best support you?

Volunteers can find + sign up for our open projects here!

Volunteers can get involved by signing up for any event of their choosing on our website! We offer lots of different events that provide unique experiences and satisfy wherever their interests are, whether that is working in a stadium, serving food to homeless individuals, or setting up items for our seasonal giveaways!

Where can volunteers find your organization on socials?