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Chiropractor, Friendly House team up to help students

Doug Schorpp, The Quad-City Times | Posted: Sunday, July 25, 2010

Dr. Jessica Castaneda of Inner Health Chiropractic, 2406 E. 53rd St., Suite 2, Davenport is hosting a fundraiser that runs through Friday to help elementary school students in need of school supplies. Her clinic is partnering with Davenport’s Friendly House.

New patients will receive first-day services, including an exam and x-rays, in exchange for a donation of a backpack or a $20 donation for gift cards for new shoes. To schedule an appointment, call (563) 344-3909.

The Friendly House’s Back to School Bash is in its fourth year, said Jodi Stock, the program’s family and senior services supervisor. It involves purchasing items not covered by other back-to-school programs for kids that supply items such as pencils and notebooks.

This effort provides backpacks and new shoes for students from kindergarten through high school throughout Scott County, she said. This year, 60 students will be assisted. Anything donated from Inner Health will be in addition to the 60 children who already have been secured as being assisted, Stock said.

Other sponsors are the Davenport Noon Kiwanis, Davenport Dad’s Club and Shoe Carnival, Davenport

Friendly House partners with national organization to feed local families

Steven Martens, The Quad-City Times | Posted: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 9:07 pm

Although the distribution of packages of food and personal supplies wasn’t scheduled to start until 9 a.m. Wednesday, people began lining up in their cars in front of the Friendly House in Davenport nearly two hours earlier, Friendly House Executive Director Lorelei Pfautz said.

Volunteers unloaded and distributed a semitrailer full of food Wednesday to 400 local families in need. The food was provided by Feed the Children, an Oklahoma-based nonprofit organization that has distributed food to families in all 50 states as part its Americans Feeding Americans Caravan.

“The Americans Feeding Americans Caravan project is geared towards families who are suffering during this economic downturn,” spokesman Tony Sellars said in a news release. “The rules have now changed. A lot of these people for the first time in their lives have not been able to provide for their families.”

Pfautz said Davenport is no exception, and her organization is providing food to twice as many families through its food pantry program than it did a year ago.

Although Wednesday’s sweltering heat was rough on volunteers unloading boxes from the trailer and loading them into cars, Pfautz said the timing of the food distribution was good.

“Families have a bigger need for food in the summer months because kids are out of school, so this is a nice time to help people with food,” she said.

The food was distributed to 400 people who signed up in advance. Each family received a 25-pound box of food, a 10-pound box of personal care items and a box of Avon products.

Eileen Gregory of Davenport said she signed up for a food package after learning about the distribution at Friendly House last week. Gregory said she suffers from back problems, and although she is able to work as a telemarketer, the low wage it pays makes it difficult to make ends meet.

“It’s hard just to get by, you know,” she said.

Friendly House Assistant Director Terry Hendershott loads boxes of food into a car during a Feed the Children food distribution program Wednesday morning in Davenport.
Larry Fisher