Help write notes

An update as of November 2022: we are quickly running out of and are in URGENT NEED of handwritten notes in Traditional Chinese. We are FULLY stocked on handwritten notes in our other languages. If you would love to contribute your time and volunteer with creating handwritten notes, please help us replenish our time-sensitive request for notes in Traditional Chinese and we encourage you to invite your friends, family, colleagues to join you! You do NOT need to know how to already write Chinese, we did not know how to write Chinese when Heart of Dinner first began. All you need is to show up with your time and dedication and integrity. We encourage you to copy any of the Chinese (traditional) sample phrases found here OR by using Apple Translate to translate uplifting and warm messages into Traditional Chinese. A tremendous heartfelt thank you for pouring in love and care into this note writing activity! 

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We're always in need of handwritten notes in Chinese (traditional only, NOT simplified), Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Thai with English translation to attach to our care packages. The goal is to let our elderly recipients feel the joy from your decorations and brighten their day with our deliveries. For illustration inspiration, take a look at the Notes highlight on our Instagram.​​

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DO'S:

• Volunteers supply their own materials and supplies to create the handwritten notes. 

  • For NYC locals, we partnered with Gorillas, a service that deliveries groceries in minutes, where they have made art materials available for ease of purchase in their app that can be delivered to NYC locals on-demand. If you'd love to volunteer your time to handwrite notes for our Elderly recipients, you can order note cards that match Heart of Dinner's dimensions. If you choose to purchase the note cards and art supplies via Gorillas, please click here to be brought to the app and use the following codes that they are offering to our community to offset fees:

    • PICKUPSMALL - $5 off total on in-store pick-up orders under $15 (offsets applicable fees). See full list of store addresses below.

    • PICKUPFREE - offsets the delivery fee for in-store warehouse pick-up on orders over $15. See full list of store addresses below. 

    • HOD20 - $20 off your first delivery order over $30+ (cannot be combined with other offers).

• If you live outside of NYC or are purchasing materials outside of Gorillas, please be sure to abide by our dimensions of the note cards which should be either 3" x 5" or 4" x 6".

• Write legibly, clearly, with large characters/letters. The message must be written in black/dark ink so it's easier on our Elderly's eyes to read. We suggest using a black sharpie marker so that your message is clear and easy to read.

• Add variation to your positive and uplifting messages each time you volunteer. Click here and swipe right to see the different examples of messages that you can copy!​​​​​​​​​​​

• Don't read/write Chinese (traditional), Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Thai? We encourage Apple Translations or Google Translate, that's exactly how we started in the early days!

• NO photocopying! Each note MUST be handwritten or they will not be used.

• Illustrate and decorate on the same note around your message. For the illustrations/decorations, please use bright, vivid, cheerful colors. Colored markers and acrylic pens are wonderful supplies that bring out the vivid colors!

• Write in batches of 25 notes and use rubber bands or sheets of paper to batch each set of 25 notes. Example: If you're sending in 200 notes, kindly help us with efficiency by breaking it down as 8 sets of 25 notes that are separated by rubberbands. You can mail all of them in one package, just so long as they are batched by 25 that is tremendously helpful, thank you in advance! 

• For each batch, use a post-it or scrap paper to let us know what language you wrote your message in and how many notes are in each batch and your Instagram handle if you have one! This helps us accurately sort through and keep thousands of notes organized and passed on to the Elderly recipient who understands a certain specific language! 
   

To finish

Take pictures or a time lapse (under 15 secs) of your creation and share it with us on Instagram. Tag us @heartofdinner, we love sharing your amazing creations.

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DON'Ts:

1. Note for businesses, corporations, organizations, affiliations: do NOT add your brand, logo, or tagline on the Heart of Dinner bags. These care packages are not for marketing purposes and should only serve one purpose: carry out Heart of Dinner's mission to counter food insecurity and isolation through our care packages. Bags received with any branding, logos, taglines will NOT be used. 

2. ​NO political messages, messaging, affiliation. Any hint of politics in the decorations and your bags will not be used. ​​​​

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