Common Heart is a multifaceted organization with numerous goals, all focused on bettering the local community.  The organization serves exclusively within Union County, but the people it serves are not limited to Union County.  Common Heart’s primary goal is to feed the community.  All aspects of the organization work together to continue to provide food to families who could not otherwise provide for themselves.  The proceeds from the Common Heart Thrift Store stay within the organization to help maintain its operation.  Common Heart hosts numerous food drives to collect and distribute throughout Union County.  Each week two separate food pantries function to make sure families constantly have access to food.  There are many other services Common Heart provides to ensure community’s needs are met.  I volunteered my 40+ hours at the Common Heart Food Pantry at Mill Grove on Monday evenings. 

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          Common Hearts vision can be summarized as this: “Kindness is love in action…Simple kindness, like taking the time to truly value another, to listen, and to care, can change hearts, lives, communities and our world.”  Common Heart’s vision is powerful because it does not suggest that the only way for the vision to be accomplished is through the organization.  You don’t need to set aside a special time or do anything extraordinary to accomplish the vision.  Simply love.  Show others you care about them.  If everyone made this a habit, the world would undoubtedly be a better place.  Another reason why this vision is so strong is because Common Heart provides a perfect venue to practice their vision.  If you volunteer there you will certainly have plenty of opportunities to show others love. 

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          Common Heart has proven to be a very effective organization within Union County.  Each week over 350 volunteers choose to spend their time at Common Heart.  It is estimated that Common Heart serves over 16,000 people (4,810 families) each and every month in Union County.  Assuming the average cost of a home cooked meal is $15.00, each month Common Heart saves low income families over $72,150.00 per month.  That’s over $850,000.00 per year, and that number will only rise as expansion continues.  Speaking of expansion, the organization has experienced rapid growth over the last five years.  Along with this growth, Common Heart has been able to extend its services to more and more people.  Common Heart’s main source of growth has been through word-of-mouth.  Going forward, a great way for the organization to get its name out there would be to invest more into traditional marketing.  Another thing for Common Heart to keep in mind is to not spread its resources too thinly.  Having a bunch of poorly managed locations would not be as effective as a few superbly managed locations.  Overall Common Heart has managed to maintain responsible growth, and show promise in continuing that trend in the future.