Our Village Reunion

01/20/2022

Family, It has been our pleasure and joy to connect with you every week for the past year and a half! We are so grateful that you continue to come see us and share your joys, pain, and celebrations with us!

January 15, 2022 was our last distribution day at First Covenant Church in Minneapolis. We are grateful to First Covenant for providing us with the space we needed to distribute to 175 families every Saturday for the last year and a half!

But don’t WORRY! We will be in touch with a new location SOON!
We are taking the next two months to pause our distribution to listen to our communities, find a new site, and reimagine additional ways to support Our Village.

To our donors and regular contributors to Our Village Reunion, please discontinue all donations to First Covenant Church until we have everything set up with our new fiduciary.

If you would like to contribute to Our Village Reunion during this time of transition:

Send donations to : First Christian Church (Located in SpringHouse Center) 610 W 28th St, Minneapolis, MN 55408
In the memo box please put : Our Village Reunion

Or for on the ground immediate purchases to support our families:

Paypal: [email protected]

Venmo: ourvillagereunion (confirmation number last four digits 9885)

We love you and we will provide more updates SOON!!!!

Peace,

Jennifer Starr Dodd and the Our Village Reunion Family!
651-319-5453
[email protected]

01/04/2022

Family, as the frigid temperatures continue to come - we have received requests from several of our families whom are living in vehicles or homes without adequate heat for support this winter.

For the next 12 days, Our Village Reunion is seeking foil blankets, quilts, comforters, and hand warmer donations.

*All physical donations must be NEW!*
We don’t want to burden our families with limited resources to find ways to wash used blankets and items.

Size blankets/comforters needed:
Twin (50 needed)
Full (50 needed)
Queen (75 needed)
Foil blankets (50 needed)
Hand warmers (400 needed)

If you are able and willing to help with physical donations of blankets and hand warmers, please drop all donations off on:

Saturday, January 15th between the hours of 9:30am-11am to:

First Covenant Church Minneapolis
810 S. 7th Street Minneapolis, MN 55415

If you would prefer to give monetarily to this effort, we have a group of volunteers on the ground ready to shop for these specific items.

We are receiving donations via:

PayPal:
[email protected]

Venmo:
ourvillagereunion
(Confirmation number last four digits 9885)

Can you help?

Stay warm and let’s show them what COMMUNITY looks like!

12/16/2021

Hey Family! Click on the link here to sign up and receive free goods on Saturday, December 18th!

810 S. 7th Street Minneapolis, MN 55415 651-319-5453 [email protected] Saturdays, 11:00am-1:00pm (Appointment Only)

11/27/2021

Hey Family!

No distribution today November 27th!

See you next week!

11/20/2021

Hey Family! We have been having issues with our texting service. This has resulted in our messages not being delivered to you!

We are having Distribution tomorrow 11am-1pm First Covenant Church Minneapolis!

We will be giving away:

Diapers and fresh produce!

Sign up here :

810 S. 7th Street Minneapolis, MN 55415 651-319-5453 [email protected] Saturdays, 11:00am-1:00pm (Appointment Only)

10/01/2021

Hey! It’s been a long time! But we are back with something to make you smile! For all that haven’t seen yet, look and see what community looks like!!

We love you BK! Go and continue to be GREAT!

04/13/2021

Our Village Reunion denounces the acts of police brutality and systemic racism.

Our hearts and spirits are broken over the modern day lynching and murder of another black man, 20 year old Daunte Wright.

We will continue to help the oppressed, uplift the voices of the marginalized, and continue to fight for justice.

When one is lost in the village, we all hurt. Until there is justice, there will be no peace!

God help us and hear our prayers.

Jennifer Starr Dodd
Founder/Director of Refuge and Outreach
Our Village Reunion

03/27/2021

Good morning OVR FAM!

All 175 appointment slots are full today.

If you or your family were not able to sign up due to our appointments being full, please call or email us and leave your name and number so we can be in touch with you.

Blessings!

Our Village Reunion
810 S. 7th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55415
651-319-5453
[email protected]

Send a message to learn more

03/20/2021

Urgent Need: I need two volunteers (preferably with larger vehicles) to meet me at Sam’s Club in Apple Valley tomorrow morning at 8am to pick up 42 boxes of diapers and pull ups and drop them off at First Covenant Church Minneapolis!

My Toyota Rav 4 is already full, and your help will be so appreciated! If you can help, please call or email ASAP!!!

Jennifer Starr Dodd - 651-319-5453 - [email protected]

Much love and blessings all!!! See you tomorrow!

03/17/2021

Here is a pic of some of our “Volun-Family”! Without them, families wouldn’t know that they are loved and valued by us. The people in this photo know how to love on their community!

Thank you volunteers!

03/16/2021

Here are some of the goodies we had on Saturday! Thank you Saint Vincent de Paul Food Pantry!

03/02/2021

It has been a long time since we have updated you, but best believe we have been busy at Our Village Reunion!

Since the new year, we have rolled out a rotating weekly goods distribution schedule so that our families can be kept abreast of all the goods we are providing for them every week. We want to give our families ample opportunity to prepare for budgeting goods to purchase for their households.

We added more community partners to the list:
Free Food For Kids, as well as The Food Group!

In addition to our existing community partners:
FFEN - Foundation for Essential Needs, Every Meal, Saint Vincent de Paul Food Pantry - Saint Joseph's Chapter.

With frigid temps and melting snow, OVR continues to serve 150 families curbside in the First Covenant parking lot. Adding our community partner Free Food For Kids in late-February, the partnership created opportunity for OVR to provide support to 375 young people from our community with a weeks worth of breakfast, lunches, and snacks to supplement for the school meals they are missing while many are out of school.

Our goal is to increase the number of families we serve every week by 50 by the end of March 2021, as the need for basic items continues to be great.

Also, starting next week Our Village Reunion will be starting to provide shelf stable and basic need items to 60 displaced teens in Saint Paul & Minneapolis.

Thank you for your continued giving to Our Village Reunion. 100% of all the monetary donations received go right back to Our Village Reunion families. To all of our donors and volunteers, we wouldn't be able to do what we do without each and every one of you!

Looking forward to equity, growth, renewal, and community.

Blessings!

Jennifer Starr Dodd
Founder/Director of Refuge - Our Village Reunion