BBN teams pack a lot of service in a short month

Foundation Beyond Belief’s Beyond Belief Network is a network of secular humanist groups volunteering in their communities and raising money for FBB’s featured charities and programs. Any group with a public secular humanist or atheist identity is welcome to join, regardless of experience or group size.

Austin Atheists Helping the Homeless (ATXAHH) have had a busy month. Based in Austin, TX, they're the first team to hit Level One in 2015! They were also honored as BBN’s February Team of the Month! Between January 19 and February 15, thirty donors offered Austin Atheists Helping the Homeless more than 1,300 items to distribute to people who are homeless and living below the poverty line. Items included basic toiletries, seasonal clothing, prepackaged snacks, fresh food, hot coffee, reading materials and sleeping bags. At the giveaway on February 15th, thirty-five ATXAHH volunteers served 114 people. Nine members of the ATXAHH Gettin’ Knotty Knitting Guild contributed 76 handmade scarves, hats and washcloths to their recent giveaway. One person donated knitted items. With the winter season ending, the group plans to refocus its efforts on creating washcloths. ATXAHH's next giveaway is on March 22, 2015. If you're not in Austin, you can still get involved: check out their Amazon wish list to see which items are needed.

Siouxland Freethinkers in Sioux Falls, SD collected bras, panties, and feminine hygiene products during their January and February Member Meetings. These items were donated to the Banquet, which serves local homeless women. These items are often in limited supply at local food banks and shelters and are expensive for homeless women to purchase. Through the generosity of SF members, they collected 1,302 tampons, 1,126 pads, 38 pairs of underwear, 46 bras, and 13 packs of personal wipes.

Corpus Christi Atheists in Corpus Christi, TX joined forced with Burners Without Borders Corpus Christi to clean three miles of beach. The effort removed 3,000 pounds of garbage including two burned out cars!

Minnesota Atheists in Minneapolis, MN purchased ingredients and prepared a healthy and delicious meal for 33 homeless people at the Family Place Homeless Shelter.

Five Central Ohio United Non-Theists (COUNT) volunteers worked as servers at the Community Shelter Board (CSB) facility on Van Buren Drive in Columbus, Ohio on February 3, 2015. CSB provides housing and meals to homeless families and individual men and women in Central Ohio. Some of the volunteers assembled hundreds of sack lunches for distribution the following day while the rest served dinners and cleaned tables. This was COUNT’s second event with the CSB; they are planning 1-2 such events each month.

Our Philippines-based BBN Team, Humanist Alliance Philippines, International (HAPI) has been busy. Feeding sa Riles is a bimonthly HAPI nutritional campaign that aims to diminish hunger, poverty and financial illiteracy in slum areas. Currently, they're monitoring the growth of 200 children in Alabang, Philippines. They want to perform this event twice a month and wish to expand its scope in other areas. This event started its test-run on January 31, 2014 and has passed the evaluation board. Spearheaded by Jamie Martinez, volunteers prepare and cook nutritional fruits and green leafy vegetables for the kids to have a more nutritious and inexpensive lifestyle. They will be teaching them financial literacy and disaster preparedness as soon as they have enough resources.

On Valentine's Day, South Jersey Humanists (SJH) in Galloway, NJ took the morning volunteer shift with the Community FoodBank of New Jersey. They worked in the warehouse sorting through donations including potatoes, checking expiration dates and boxing items. SJH anticipates that this will be a monthly effort. One of the pictures they submitted was chosen as February Picture of the Month!

If you are a member of a secular humanist or atheist group and would like to participate in community service projects under the national umbrella of Foundation Beyond Belief, join Beyond Belief Network. We welcome all atheist groups interested in service, from groups with extensive volunteer experience to newly formed groups new to secular service. By aggregating our efforts, we demonstrate that all we really need is charity and goodness to make the world a better place.