Annual Appeal
Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Any time of year, your financial contributions are welcome. These vital donations fund our food programs, family services, immigrant services—and our mission to empower individuals and families to achieve self-sufficiency.
You have the option to make a one-time or recurring donation. We gladly accept support from both individual and corporate donors.
From the Director
In 2024, despite positive signs for the economy at large, many people felt little relief from economic strain. Even as inflation subsides, we continue to see massive increases in need among people who are being left behind as the gap between wealth and poverty continues to widen.
How can that be? It’s all in the way numbers are reported. Traditionally reported data on inflation and the consumer price index reflect the economy as a whole, but does not account for households in different income brackets spending proportionally more or less of their budgets in certain categories. A deeper look at these measures reveals that households in the lowest income brackets consistently experience higher inflation because a greater portion of their budgets are necessarily spent in categories like rent, food and transportation—all areas that have seen little relief from rising prices.
We see this most clearly in demand for our food programs, where we continue to invest more resources to meet the unprecedented need. This year, we received 10,000 requests for food pantry assistance— a 75 percent increase over the last two years. We’ve also served some 50,000 hot meals at The Kitchen and through partnerships with the RISE and Code Blue shelters.
Despite the rancor and divisiveness that has marked discussions on the economy and country this year, our local response to the economic hardship faced by people in our communities has been decidedly the opposite. LifeWorks staff, volunteers, donors and community partners come together under a simple unifying banner—we are a community of neighbors helping neighbors. And as a result, we’ve seen positive growth and change in our community.
If this is something that you believe in and you are able to help someone in greater need by making a donation, we appreciate that. If you aren’t able to make a monetary contribution right now, we respect that. The important thing is to think about the ways we can all pitch in together. That is where we have the power to change our communities.
Krystle Nowhitney Hernandez Executive Director
Food Programs: The Pantry & Kitchen
Food insecurity is typically an urgent problem. With more clients, there is greater urgency. While that trend has strained some aspects of our operations, we have sought every opportunity to fine-tune our processes and enlist more volunteers to keep our neighbors from going hungry.
One way we increased efficiency is by updating our online ordering and inventory system to maximize storage capacity—and to improve the order experience so our clients can more accurately choose the products they want.
New York State is increasing funding for the Food as Medicine Program that provides healthy food to people with diet-related medical conditions. As a result, we plan to more fully integrate this program into our food service operations.
At the same time, we are seeking ways to expand The Pantry’s refrigerated storage to increase the amount of food we can make available—and the quality of that food when our clients receive it. We’re also working to diversify our supply chain to improve inventory and the consistent availability of certain products. Ready to volunteer? Please join us!
$54.60 FEEDS 1 PERSON 1 MEAL A DAY FOR 1 MONTH AT THE KITCHEN
25,824 MEALS PER MONTH PROVIDED BY THE PANTRY ($47,117 VALUE)
Looking Ahead to 2025
We expect the number of people needing our food services to increase in 2025. We’re already working to adjust our capacity and workflow to meet that need.
$87.36 FEEDS 48 MEALS TO A FAMILY OF 4 IN 1 VISIT TO THE PANTRY
800 FAMILIES PER MONTH SERVED BY THE PANTRY
WIC (Women, Infants and Children): A Healthy Start to Life
$375 IN FOOD BENEFITS FOR A WOMAN WITH AN INFANT ON BASIC FORMULA & A CHILD
Food and lifestyle are rarely discussed at prenatal and postpartum doctor’s appointments, our clients tell us. That makes WIC’s role of providing support and nutrition education even more important— and our staff are taking that to heart.
Our Breastfeeding Peer Counselor Coordinator has gone beyond ensuring that clients receive the care, information and guidance they need to successfully breastfeed their children. She is making WIC a program staffed by women who motivate and support mothers to be their best selves and to provide their babies with their best chance at a healthy start.
WIC also intersects with nearly every other area of service LifeWorks offers. Thanks to our close relationships across the organization, we’re able to gather most of the information our counterparts need during our clients’ first visit—so quickly that those experiencing food insecurity can often pick up a food order from The Pantry on their way home.
LifeWorks’ immigrant services staff help us build trust and understanding with families learning English. Head Start home visitors deliver WIC materials and education to our shared clients during their appointments and help us identify our clients’ needs, from access to The Pantry’s delivery service to Medicaid referrals for assistance with healthcare.
$320 TO $440 IN FORMULA DEPENDING ON A BABY’S AGE
$26 TO $52 PER PERSON PER MONTH, FOR FRESH, FROZEN OR CANNED FRUITS & VEGETABLES
$25+ IN FARMERS MARKET COUPONS PER PERSON AGE 6+ MONTHS IN GROWING SEASON
Looking Ahead to 2025
We are aware that about 50% of WIC-eligible people do not take advantage of the program. To increase the number of people we can serve, we are seeking additional grant funding to improve awareness and outreach, and to determine what barriers or disparities may prevent these families from reaching us.
Head Start & Early Head Start: Early Childhood Education
With a focus on providing affordable, high-quality childcare and increasing kindergarten readiness, our Head Start programs have continued to navigate fluctuating needs throughout the county.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have experienced an increase in challenging behaviors, so we hired a Special Education and Disabilities Manager to provide additional support and training to staff. This has allowed us to keep a closer eye on the extra support that some children need and to connect families to resources like early intervention.
At the same time we lost a classroom in the Corinth School District, we opened an additional integrated classroom in Ballston Spa, where we collaborate with Capital District Beginnings to provide special education services for seven more children in our program. The 2023‒24 school year also marked the first time we offered full-school-day programming in Ballston Spa since before the pandemic. And, we are now offering universal pre-K in collaboration with the Ballston Spa, Saratoga Springs and Shenendehowa school districts.
To ensure that we retain the funding granted to us to provide our early education services, we have increased marketing efforts and community outreach. We are also engaging with strategic partners and building relationships with school districts county-wide.
217 CHILDREN FROM 204 FAMILIES WERE ENROLLED IN HEAD START
72 HEAD START CHILDREN HAD AN INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION PLAN (IEP)
Looking Ahead to 2025
Both through Head Start and Early Head Start, we are working to increase access to early education for families across the county. In fact, through an initiative spearheaded by state Assemblymember Carrie Woerner and the Saratoga Housing Authority, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie committed $3 million to replace our current Jefferson Terrace classroom in Saratoga Springs with a larger facility. This will allow us to open an additional classroom and have space for parent engagement. To provide a continuum of support, the Saratoga Housing Authority is also bringing in new partners to offer programs for older children.
57 CHILDREN FROM 55 FAMILIES WERE ENROLLED IN EARLY HEAD START
11/27 UNHOUSED CHILDREN GAINED HOUSING
Family Services: A Whole New Approach to Growth
Many LifeWorks clients are seeking safe, stable, secure housing—and financial assistance to meet the general costs of living, including housing, transportation, health care, childcare and related expenses.
Our team works with families to help them make long-term progress toward self-sufficiency in these areas. We also address more urgent situations. For example, when the Affordable Connectivity Program ended over the summer, we stepped in to help clients find low-cost or free cell phones and internet access.
Being fully integrated into Head Start and other LifeWorks programming allows Family Services to encourage individuals to make decisions with active consideration for the needs of their children and family members. We include discussions about financial management, physical and mental wellbeing, and other topics with conversations about meeting the needs of an individual’s entire family.
This year, we were able to apply a financial literacy grant to our renewed focus on the relationship of debt and savings to other areas of life. This has led multiple clients to create budgets and get out of debt.
6 STAFF
3 INTERNS
350 INDIVIDUALS RECEIVED REFERRALS AND SUPPORT 600+ NEEDS ADDRESSED
90 CLIENTS PARTICIPATED IN MOBILE MENTORING
235 GOALS ACHIEVED
Looking Ahead to 2025
In 2025, our primary focus is to continue expanding use of Mobility Mentoring throughout the community to help families build toward their futures. We plan to broaden access to our Caregiver Networking group, which meets monthly to discuss parenting, well-being or unexpected needs participants’ families experience.
We also plan to continue accompanying most of our current Mobility Mentoring clients as they work toward overall economic mobility and increased stability for their families. In particular, we hope many of our Head Start families who started setting goals during their child’s enrollment this year will carry forward that momentum in 2025.
Energy Services: Improving Housing & Climate Resilience
105 HOMES WEATHERIZED
Local housing affordability is a persistent challenge for both homeowners and renters with low incomes. Unfortunately, more affordable housing is often older and less energy efficient, so even as energy costs have subsided, these neighbors have continued to face higher-than-necessary energy costs. The solution? Proper weatherization to ensure a home uses less energy and provides a more comfortable and healthy living environment.
We are proud to have weatherized more than 100 homes this year, and to have played an important role in reducing carbon emissions and building climate resilience. Heating and cooling a building requires a lot of energy—it accounts for 43 percent of energy use in the United States. By helping reduce use, we are not only helping improve the quality and affordability of housing in our community, we are also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
40 HOMES COMBINED WEATHERIZATIONS & NYSERDA EMPOWER ENERGY EFFICIENCY FUNDING
87 SENIOR CITIZENS SERVED
Immigrant Services: Beyond Second-Language Support
Rewarding a focused approach to outreach in 2023, this year brought many new clients to our doors. We assisted 182 people with tax preparation, helped more with ITIN applications to be sure they can navigate the tax system, and ensured that many who are eligible for legal work authorization gained the documentation necessary to access better-paying jobs and protect themselves from exploitation in the workplace.
Juntos Podemos Más, a volunteer group composed of individuals from different communities and backgrounds who want to be of service to others, brought a fresh perspective to the Immigrant Services team by allowing us to see the needs of the community through the eyes of immigrants. In part, the group’s efforts contributed to the establishment of Saratoga Springs Public Library’s new Spanish-language section.
Our ESL program benefited from a new NYS Department of State grant. Our case managers supported immigrant families through a variety of of educational, healthcare, financial and legal transactions. And we expanded our annual Visión programming to welcome the broader community.
One of the most significant advances has been increasing access to other LifeWorks programs thanks to staff who speak our clients’ languages and can guide them through processes that would otherwise be challenging. From Mobility Mentoring to WIC and Head Start intake, the difference in access has been remarkable. With additional funding from the Hispanic Federation, The Pantry has even been able to stock culturally specific foods.
482 CLIENTS RECEIVED SERVICES
22 GAINED EMPLOYEMENT AUTHORIZATION DOCUMENTS
Looking Ahead to 2025
As we look ahead, we see numerous opportunities to increase access to services and improve the quality of the immigrant experience in our local area. We are particularly interested in increasing outreach to farm workers in adjacent counties, where the capacity for service is limited—and in consolidating our Hispanic volunteer group to lead events that pull the community together.
Our team is engaging with partners like Wellspring; to serve as a bridge to domestic violence assistance, local school districts to facilitate parent involvement in children’s education; and the Saratoga Immigration Coalition to provide scholarships. Similarly, we’re strengthening and streamlining our processes to broaden the reach of our Mobility Mentoring and Legal Services efforts. And we’re working to formalize partnerships and referral relationships with area agencies, nonprofits and schools. We’re even requesting a remote visit from the Guatemalan consulate next summer, in addition to return visits from the Mexican consulate.
Given that the political landscape can have a rapid warming and cooling effect on the willingness of immigrants to engage with organizations like LifeWorks, we spent the fall planning for either outcome of the U.S. Presidential election. We are confident that we are well-positioned to meet the needs of our neighbors.
20 RECEIVED TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS
23 WERE GRANTED ASYLUM