Heart of Dinner is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
TAX ID 85-2676806
Instructions for mailing checks
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Make check out to Heart of Dinner Inc. and in the memo section note down Tax ID 85-2676806.
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Mail to the address listed below.
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Email us here about your incoming check so that we are aware to be on the lookout.
Mailing address for checks
Heart of Dinner
31 Howard Street
#404
New York, NY 10013
Mailing in notes? Please mail to:
Heart of Dinner
31 Howard Street, #404, New York, NY 10013
Local NYC dropoff of bags/notes? Please stop by Partybus Bakeshop during their open hours to dropoff completed decorations*:
31 Essex Street
New York, NY 10002
(between Grand Street & Hester Street)
*Stop by anytime during their store hours and kindly let the Partybus Bakeshop team know that you'd like to pass them your completed bags and/or notes so they can help store them for us. Always be sure to check for their open hours first by clicking here, thank you!
Are you reaching out from a corporation or a business interested in volunteering opportunities for your team?
Thank you so much for your enthusiasm in supporting our mission and we’d be thrilled to our different volunteering opportunities available! Contact Founders and Co-executive directors Yin Chang and Moonlynn Tsai by clicking here to inquire about our Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities and be sure to write in the subject line, “Corporate Sponsorship Inquiry”.
If your company is interested in requesting the founders as speakers, please note that due to limited capacity and influx of speaking requests, they are only able to commit to speaking engagements that meet the minimum budget requirement. The donation minimum is made as a direct charitable donation to Heart of Dinner to support our mission of nourishing Elders. If interested, please email us by clicking here and include in the body of the message details of your ideal event date, location, a summary about your company, and the budget range. Companies that are able to meet the required minimum donation amount will be considered.
FAQs
How can I best help Heart of Dinner?
We are deeply appreciative of your support and generosity and here are the top 3 ways you can support us in needle-moving ways that drive impact for our organization. Thank you for your tremendous support and enabling our mission to continue uplifting the lives of our communities.
1. Monetary donations: Monetary donations are our greatest need that drive the most impact at this time for Heart of Dinner. Your donations support our entire spectrum of vital work and build a sustainable foundation for growth. A portion of your contribution also goes towards our ambitious 2024 initiative to build Heart of Dinner's in-house delivery infrastructure which will be foundational in stabilizing our service delivery, allowing us to continue providing reliable care package deliveries. (Learn more about the initiative below.) If you're interested and able to contribute, please visit this link. Once your donation is completed on our online platform, an automated donation letter of receipt will be sent to the email address you input. If you have questions about the donation platform, or did not receive the automated donation letter of receipt, or would like to request a physical donation letter, please email accounting[at]edwardcharlesfoundation.org and CC hello[at]heartofdinner.org.
2. Self-fundraising proceeds for Heart of Dinner:
We are immensely grateful for your dedication and efforts in supporting us. To ensure clarity and transparency, it's important that you explicitly mention the specific percentage of proceeds (for example, '100% of proceeds' or '50% of proceeds') that will be donated to Heart of Dinner in all public communications. Additionally, please note that the use of the Heart of Dinner logo is strictly limited to officially sanctioned partnerships. These partnerships must be formally approved in writing by the Co-Executive Directors of Heart of Dinner. To avoid any misunderstandings or misleading representations, please refrain from using our logo unless such approval has been granted. For any inquiries regarding partnerships, logo usage, or to seek approval for your fundraising initiatives, please reach out to us by clicking here. We're here to assist and guide you through the process.
3. I'm interested in donating and getting my company to match contributions, what should I do? We're deeply touched by your willingness to donate and further support our work at Heart of Dinner through your company's matching contributions! Thank you so much for going the extra mile in amplifying your impact and uplifting us in this generous way! Here is some key information that would be helpful to pass on to your company: Heart of Dinner is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with the tax ID 85-2676806. Please email hello[at]heartofdinner.org and CC accounting[at]edwardcharlesfoundation.org if you have further questions about company matches or donor advised funds.
Our 2024 Special Initiative: Building Our In-House Delivery Infrastructure for a Sustainable Future
As we look forward to 2024, we wish to share with you both our gratitude and the challenges we face, painting a picture of our journey and the role you play in it. Since the first Heart of Dinner delivery on April 1, 2020, we've experienced something remarkable. In a city where cars are a rarity, our incredible volunteer drivers have driven their own vehicles to ensure that not a single day of delivery was missed. Their dedication to carrying out our mission of home-delivering care packages to our Elder beneficiaries throughout NYC feels like an absolute miracle and has been instrumental here at Heart of Dinner. We're immensely grateful for every volunteer driver and passenger who has contributed their time and effort. Their commitment has been the cornerstone of ability to serve the beneficiaries living on their own without any support.
In 2023, we experienced notable challenges with the availability of our volunteer drivers, largely due to natural life changes. Although we continue to receive invaluable support from some volunteer drivers, the number has significantly decreased. To uphold our promise of uninterrupted weekly home-deliveries, we've been fortunate to partner with a third-party driving company. This collaboration has been a valuable support and absolutely crucial in filling in the gaps when our volunteer driver numbers dwindled. However, this arrangement is not without its challenges. The drivers from this company, while tremendously helpful and incredibly committed, are juggling multiple jobs and are understandably not solely dedicated to Heart of Dinner as they strive to make a living-- preventing them from being able to fully immerse themselves in our values and guidelines at Heart of Dinner, a fundamental aspect of our delivery process.
These experiences have highlighted the need for a dedicated fleet and team that align with Heart of Dinner's ethos and values! It's an ambitious initiative that requires your support for our continued success and growth. Your support through donations will play an instrumental role:
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Our Strategy for Sustainable Deliveries: To better serve our Elders and the ability to make sure that every Heart of Dinner care package is delivered with the love and care it represents, funds will not only help us sustain our current work but also help us to establish our own fleet of eco-friendly refrigerated vans. This will allow us to maintain a consistent, reliable delivery service that aligns with our values of thoughtfulness and personal connection.
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Acquire Eco-Friendly Refrigerated Vans: Investing in our fleet means we can deliver fresh, culturally nutritious meals to our Elders while minimizing our carbon footprint. Reach out to us here if you would like to discuss sponsoring an eco-friendly refrigerated van!
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Form a Dedicated Team: Your contributions will help us employ a team of drivers trains in the Heart of Dinner way by delivering each care package not just with efficiency, but with warmth, kindness, and love that meet our quality and high-standards in our journey redefining Elder care.
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Every Contribution Makes a Difference: Whether it's a financial donation, in-kind donation of vans, corporate sponsorship, or other ways of contributing to this goal, your involvement is crucial.
By donating to Heart of Dinner, you're not just supporting a service; you're contributing to a movement that values empathy, dignity, and community connection.
Are you interested in volunteering with us remotely? Ideal for individuals living in NY, living out-of-state, or living in another country to get involved.
We’re so happy you’re interested and thank you for your time! Our homebound Elderly whom we serve are unable to access essential resources, leading to food insecurity, loneliness, and depression that can result in various detrimental health concerns. We alleviate the loneliness and isolation by providing uplifting and heartwarming artwork from our volunteers and your tremendous contribution will bring cheer to our beloved recipients. We welcome all ages of volunteers to join us in our mission by contributing handwritten notes and decorated brown bags to be used for our upcoming care package deliveries. If you're interested in contributing, please see below for more information.
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HANDWRITE NOTES: Heart of Dinner is currently in need of handwritten notes in Traditional Chinese. Please click here for step-by-step instructions on how to handwrite the notes. You don't need to be able to speak or write the language; all you need is patience and effort to copy the sample phrases found in the link above. The instructions include dimensions, writing instructions, and pickup/dropoff location. Kindly note that we are fully stocked in Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese and Tagalog. If you would love to send in notes in languages other than the time-sensitive needed Chinese notes, we are always happy to accept them and store them for future use!
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DECORATE BAGS: We have an ongoing need of over 600 decorated bags each week. The key is to strive for quality decorations that focus on attention to detail. Please keep in mind that many of our elderly cut out the decorations to save and look through when they feel lonely and want to brighten up their day. Please do not aim for a higher number if it will sacrifice quality and care for each bag decoration! On average, participating individuals contribute in bulk of 50, 100, or sometimes 250 decorated bags at a time. There is no deadline, but we deeply appreciate your contributions as soon as you are able. To contribute your decorated bags for the upcoming care packages, please click here for instructions on how to decorate the bags. The instructions include dimensions, artwork instructions, and pickup/dropoff locations.
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We warmly welcome 18+ year old volunteers local to NYC to help assemble and/or deliver Heart of Dinner care packages to homebound Elderly on Wednesdays! Please note that we only operate on Wednesdays, there are no other days to volunteer in-person. If you’d like to volunteer on other days, refer to the above volunteer opportunity of bag-decorating and note-writing.
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DRIVERS (CAR REQUIRED): We are always seeking Volunteers who are able to drive their own cars. If you have a valid license and active auto insurance to drive your own car and are interested in helping us deliver Heart of Dinner care packages to Elderly recipients, please click here to submit your volunteer application.
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PACKERS (NO CAR REQUIRED): To assemble our care packages at one of our packing sites, fill out our volunteer form to receive our volunteer-request emails: click here to fill out the form.
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Are you interested in volunteering with us in-person? These volunteer opportunities are ideal for individuals living locally in NY to get involved. Must be over 18+ years old to operate on site with Heart of Dinner:
How can I learn more information about Heart of Dinner's mission, impact, and the beneficiaries that the organization serves?
Heart of Dinner is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (tax ID 85-2676806) that addresses food insecurity, loneliness, and isolation among Asian American older adults living in significantly under-resourced and underinvested communities. We provide care packages of culturally thoughtful food, handwritten notes of love, uplifting artwork, and moments of companionship to nourish the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of Elders we serve. To learn more, click here.
What is the current status of the Heart of Dinner care package program, and what are the eligibility criteria and nature of support for beneficiaries?
At Heart of Dinner, our core mission is to consistently support Asian American older adults in under-resourced communities through our high-quality care packages. As of now, we are serving nearly 700 beneficiaries, a milestone that reflects our commitment and dedication. To maintain our high standards of quality and integrity, we have temporarily paused the onboarding of new beneficiaries. This allows us to focus on strengthening our foundation and ensuring sustainable operations for long-term community support.
We want to emphasize that when we onboard a beneficiary, our commitment is ongoing and not a one-time provision. Each beneficiary we welcome into our program receives our care packages on a weekly basis, indefinitely. As of early 2024, we have served 180,000+ culturally thoughtful meals. This approach underlines our role as a trusted and consistent community partner, dedicated to serving our beneficiaries as part of their support system.
Currently, we are not immediately adding new beneficiaries to Heart of Dinner's nourishing care package services during this phase of stabilizing and strengthening our existing operations of delivering to nearly 700 beneficiaries. However, eligible individuals or those assisting an eligible Elder can fill out our waitlist application. Please click on this link to complete the beneficiary application form for yourself or on behalf of an eligible Elder. Applications will be reviewed in the order they are received, following our eligibility criteria below, once we initiate our next growth phase.
Eligibility Criteria
To quality for the Heart of Dinner care package program, applicants must be local NYC Asian American individuals aged 60 or above. Additionally, they must meet at least one of the following conditions:
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Have a gross monthly income as a single elderly at or below $1,869; or have a gross monthly income as an elderly couple at or below $2,518.
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Unable to prepare meals due to financial limitations, inability to shop or cook, or lack of facilities.
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Experience isolation due to lack of family, friend or neighbor support.
We are grateful for your understanding and the support of our donors and community, as they enable us to be a reliable presence in the lives of our Elders, week after week, building a stronger community together.
As much as we would love to bring on all of the elderly in our neighborhoods, we have reached our maximum capacity. Please apply for our waiting list and when we are able to expand, we hope to bring on more elderly recipients as soon as our bandwidth and capacity will allow!
How do I include some elders to receive your care packages/meals?