Dear Jan,

As we barrel through the super-busy holiday season, I wanted to take a minute to thank you for all you do. Whether you're filling a green bag, volunteering to pick up bags, volunteering to do food recovery pickups, keeping an eye on your school's SHARE refrigerator, telling friends about A Simple Gesture, hosting a food drive, or making a financial gift, we truly appreciate you. Without you, A Simple Gesture wouldn't exist — and a lot more children and families in Guilford County would be hungry.

You keep coming through. Our Giving Tuesday fundraiser was a big success. We hit our matching grant — and then some! Your generosity and your unwavering desire to keep children and families fed inspire us.

2025 is going to be a big year for A Simple Gesture. Our community will mark the 10-year anniversary of being named the hungriest metro area in the country, and A Simple Gesture will mark its 10th birthday. (Scroll down for an announcement about our first birthday event, coming up in January!) We'll be using this as an opportunity to refocus the community on hunger, celebrate the progress we've made, and lay the groundwork for what the next 10 years hold. If we're lucky, by then hunger will be a thing of the past!

Wishing you a holiday season filled with joy and looking forward to a very exciting, 2025,

Time is Running Out: Order Your Honor Cards Today

Knock out the rest of your holiday gift list the easy way with honor cards from A Simple Gesture. Submit a list of people whom you'd like to send cards in honor of, their addresses, and your donation. Then we'll fill out the cards and mail them from our office, letting the recipients know a donation was made in their honor. What a simple and thoughtful way to send good wishes during the upcoming holiday season!

To order honor cards online, click here. The deadline to order is 9 am on Friday, December 20.

To submit your list via email, contact asimplegesturegso@gmail.com.

Driver Update: Simpler Signups!

To make driver signups easier for everyone, we're now using Google Forms. A few highlights:

• No Google account needed.
• No sign-in required.
• More private and secure — no more visible, lost, or accidentally changed information.
• Receive a sign-up confirmation.
• Include notes and comments.

Simply fill in the form and hit submit (an * denotes a required field)!

Questions? Call or email Maria at

336-547-7000 x2 or

maria@asimplegesturegso.org

If you've never volunteered as a driver, 2025 is a great time to start! Thank you for using your time and talents to help fill the shelves for our partner pantries!

One resident had a great idea: Once a month, each resident would bring $1 to lunch. That money would be used for a group grocery order. Genius!

The plan worked out even better than anyone expected. A few days before Thanksgiving, our incredible partners at First Christian Church on Deep River Road in High Point were struggling to fill Thanksgiving food boxes for their clients. They were short on flour, sugar, and mashed potato flakes — and the boxes were set to be distributed just two days later.

In what turned out to be perfect timing, the residents at Solista High Point made their first donation. Knowing that the First Christian food boxes were short, A Simple Gesture immediately used that contribution to buy flour, sugar, and mashed potato flakes. Thanks to this generous gift, the boxes were full and went to families to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal.

Neighbors helping neighbors, that's what it's all about! Thank you, Solista High Point and First Christian, for being such amazing partners!

Just Announced! Leslie Receives "40 Under 40" Top Honors

The ASG staff, board, volunteers, food donors, and friends know our President Leslie Loyd is something special — and the Triad Business Journal agrees! Leslie was just named as a 2025 "40 Under 40" winner. Congratulations, Leslie!

Saluting Excellence: A Peek Inside the SHARE Program at High Point Central

Every public school in Guilford County has a SHARE refrigerator, where students can place their unopened cafeteria food to share it with any other student who is hungry — just like the refrigerator at home!

Some schools use their refrigerators in particularly innovative and highly effective ways. At High Point Central High School, the refrigerator is located near the office suite shared by the School Resource Officer and a counselor.

The School Resource Officer shares food from the refrigerator during class changes, because students who are well-fed are better able to learn. The counselor goes the extra mile to make sure that any student who is pregnant gets the added nutrition from the juice in the fridge. Everybody wins!

A big shoutout to High Point Central Counselor Zenaida Flores and School Resource Officer Brent Sepulveda (Officer Sep) for their innovative use of the SHARE refrigerator!

Not sure where the SHARE refrigerator is at your child's school? Ask an administrator to show you. If your school is doing a great job utilizing the SHARE fridge to feed hungry students, nominate your school for a SHARE Shoutout!

Year-End Giving: Planning Ahead

Many of our generous supporters make a year-end gift to A Simple Gesture. If you're planning to do so, thank you! We rely on your support to keep food pantry shelves stocked, SHARE refrigerators running, and food recovery efforts going strong. Please note, gifts must be postmarked or submitted online by December 31 to count toward the 2024 tax year.

We appreciate your generosity! Thank you!

At this point we've collected over 8,000 pounds of food — with more still coming in! A huge thank-you to these organizations:

• Piedmont Chemical Industries
• Junior League of Greensboro
• VBC Run Club
• Black Child Development Institute - Greensboro
• VF Corporation - Greensboro
• Guilford County EC Pre-K
• A Special Blend High Point
• A Special Blend Greensboro
• Holmes Grove Outreach
• Cover the City Project
• Mother Murphy's Flavors
• Truu Foundation.
• Holmes Grove Outreach
• Educational Playtime Too
• Guilford County Partnership for Children
• Oak Street Health - Greensboro
• Northern Shores Neighborhood

Sending extra-special thank-yous to:

• Milestones School of Achievement for hosting their annual food drive. The kids collected over 1,100 pounds!
• St. Paul's Presbyterian Church in High Point, whose women's group hosted another wonderful food collection.
• Carolina Management Team for doing their annual Reverse Advent food drive.
• Solista - High Point, for inviting us to decorate a Christmas tree in their lobby and doing a food drive!
• The High Point University Admissions Department, which hosted its annual food drive.
• Southwest Elementary, which has each grade level taking charge of a monthly food drive. In December, second graders collected holiday basics such as sugar, flour, and spices.
• High Point Theatre, for collecting food during their incredible holiday concerts and shows.
• Kid Appeal Daycare, for getting students involved in a food drive.
• Volvo Trucks North America, for continuing their monthly food drives at their campus.
• Wesley Memorial School, for their monthly food collections and for collecting food during their schoolwide Thanksgiving lunch.
• Edward Jones on Old Plank Rd., for choosing a food drive as a special project during annual holiday party.
• City Lake Park, for inviting us to help collect food during the annual Winterfest celebration.
• Encounter Church, for filling green bags during the holiday season.
• Rehab Without Walls, which continues to collect nonperishable food from students attending their free tai chi class!
• YOU, for filling a green bag, doing food recovery, volunteering to drive, sorting food as it's delivered, making a financial gift, liking our social media, decreasing food waste at home, and telling your neighbors about A Simple Gesture. Thank you for being part of the ASG community!

What Does an ASG Staff Party Look Like? Take a Peek!

A Simple Gesture staff and families took a break last week to gather for a staff holiday party during the Running of the Balls in Greensboro. We were all decked out in our holiday finery, and hot-diggity-dog, much to our surprise, the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile showed up — so of course we had to climb in! Totally random, and totally bun-tastic!

From Our Sustainers: 

Be a Hero for Hunger



"One of my New Year's resolutions last year was to not miss putting out my green bag — however I wasn't entirely successful. So this year I'm switching over to make a gift to A Simple Gesture each month. I know I'll be successful in achieving my resolution this year!" — Anonymous financial donor

Thank you to this donor and to all of our monthly sustainers. A gift in any amount — $10, $20, $50, $100 — each month is a huge help in getting children and families the food they need.