ECHO helps community members in need with an army of volunteers
Emergency Care Help Organization helps community
The Emergency Care Help Organization, commonly known as ECHO, has been serving Eastern Hillsborough County since 1987. Their goal is to help folks get back on their feet during a crisis. FOX 13's Mark Wilson reports.
RIVERVIEW, Fla. - ECHO, or Emergency Care Help Organization, has been helping families in crisis in Eastern Hillsborough County since 1987.
Stamp out Hunger Food Drive
By the numbers:
Recently, an estimated 60,000 pounds of food ended up in ECHO's Riverview building thanks to the National Association of Letter Carriers' annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.
"It equates to about 50,000 meals. It's the largest drive of the year," ECHO Development Manager Steve McKinnon said. "It helps sustain us for a couple of months."
ECHO partners with food drive
The backstory:
ECHO was founded in 1987. The non-profit has been partnering with the food drive for the last two decades.
"This is right out of someone's pantry. All of this, when it's all said and done, came on Saturday from residential homes," McKinnon said.
Volunteers assist
Dig deeper:
Lots of donations require a lot of volunteers to help sort all of it.
Various community partners, including Coca-Cola, Chadwell Supply and Mosaic, send in teams to help all week long. Volunteers from Mosaic recently helped sort around 3,000 pounds and helped re-organize the clothing room.
"ECHO is built on a volunteer basis," McKinnon said. "For the food drive, there's no way we could do all of this without all our volunteers."
ECHO helps families in need
What they're saying:
Long-time Mosaic volunteer Hector Mier had a friend who lost everything in a fire.
"I think it's extremely important," Mier said. "Once you lose everything, you have to have a starting point. You need something to put you back on your feet, and this is a place to do that."
Mier loves to see everyone coming together for a good cause, which is increasingly needed for ECHO. Normally, the organization helps around 14,000 families a year. McKinnon says they are on pace to help 34,000 this year.
"The economic factors with increased housing, fuel, food costs have driven demand and put a lot of our neighbors that are right on the edge over the edge," McKinnon said. "In the last couple of years, the demand for our services has skyrocketed."
What's next:
After emergency food assistance, ECHO focuses on stabilizing the family through job placement assistance and, if needed, housing resources.
Click here for more information.
The Source: Information in this story comes from interviews conducted by FOX 13's Barry Wong with ECHO Development Manager Steve McKinnon.