28 Sep
helping hands
hello, helpful moms. this page is designed to be a one-stop shop for your helping hands needs. you’ll find (almost) everything you need here to volunteer to bring a meal for any and all of our new moms. i’m not including any contact information here, just in the interest of privacy. you should have detailed information and directions in your email box for each of the moms here. if you don’t, please let me know: kelly.rutledge@yahoo.com. also, addresses and phone numbers can be found in your roster, which is emailed to you every now and then.
available dates:
looking for ideas, or want to know what people have taken in the past?
previously helped moms:
frequently asked questions
1. what is helping hands?
the best idea ever! and it totally wasn’t mine. if i knew whose it was, i would give them lots of credit here. anyway, the idea is that feeding your family delicious meals after the arrival of a newborn in the house can be difficult and time-consuming, so why not help each other out, make a little extra food, and swing it by a family’s house when they could really use it. it’s also a great way to meet your friends’ new babies, or maybe even meet new moms (and teeny tiny babies) in the club while providing a service that means so much.
2. how does it work?
information is gathered from the expecting mom about due dates and family preferences. after the baby is born, a schedule is created and made available to the other moms in the club. we ask for volunteers for every monday, wednesday, and friday for a period of six weeks, totaling 18 meals. if you want to participate, just pick a date (and a second choice) and reply to the email. wait for your confirmation and put the date on your calendar. if you’d like to run your menu ideas past the new mom, feel free to call or email beforehand. usually moms request a call (or email) by the day of the drop-off just to make sure they’ll be around to receive the meal, but not always. cook (or otherwise gather) the meal, drop it off, and make someone’s day!
3. will i get a reminder of my commitment?
odds are good that you will. i make every effort to send you a reminder email 2-3 days before your date, but i mess up as much as the next mom (y’all DO mess up, right?). so, please, put it on your calendar, or bathroom mirror, or on your forehead…..whatever your method of remembering very important things.
4. i don’t cook. is that a problem?
NO. it is not. i rarely cook. i bake; not so much with the cooking. however, i’m always able to figure something out, and as far as i know, i haven’t killed anyone yet. if you cook a healthful, delicious and balanced meal for your family every night, bravo! but if you mostly find other ways to feed your family, just use some of those same tricks to feed a helping hands family. you can drop off some take-out, pick up something at the grocery store deli, order pizza or chinese to be delivered, or even send a gift card to a local restaurant ahead of the date you pick.
5. do i have to deliver a hot meal right at dinnertime?
NO. while plenty of our moms can deliver a hot meal at dinnertime, and as much as i would like to be so together as to do that, i’m fooling no one. so i think of something that will reheat well and i take that, earlier in the day. or the day before. as long as you coordinate with the mom to make sure she knows what to expect, there’s no reason you can’t deliver the meal ahead of the mealtime. if you do bring something that needs to be cooked, or re-heated, make sure to include cooking or re-heating instructions if needed.
6. i signed up to help, but now i can’t do it on the day i picked. what should i do?
hey, no big deal, stuff comes up. there are a few options here…the most important thing is that we don’t leave an unsuspecting family hungry at dinnertime. as soon as you know that you can’t do the date you picked, take steps to either let the mom know that there’s a problem with that day, or otherwise cover the meal. you could send a gift card to the family ahead of time, switch with another mom on the schedule, or ask the mom to pick another day that works for both of you. in the case of a last minute problem, call the mom as soon as you can just to let her know what is going on. she’ll figure something out, undoubtedly, but please give her all the notice you can.
7. my date has come and gone, and i just forgot. now what?
whatever you’d want to happen if it were you. i’m thinking an apologetic phone call would be a nice start.
8. i’m a mom receiving meals, and i know i won’t be around to receive a meal on one of my dates. should i tell the mom scheduled to deliver a meal that day?
yes, please, as soon as you know. maybe she’ll bring it another day, but the most important thing is that she knows that you won’t need it on the date she signed up for, and she can adjust her plans.
9. i took a meal, but i didn’t get a thank-you note or email. what’s up with that?
first, know that regardless of what issues forth from your mailbox (snailmail or email), your effort WAS appreciated. this is a lifesaver for so many moms, and makes life so much more pleasant than it would be otherwise. those who have enjoyed the service know this, and hopefully those who haven’t yet enjoyed it will one day get a chance to. that said, we ALL know that the time after a newborn comes home is a tough one, even in the best of circumstances. and the circumstances are not always the best. adjustments can be difficult, problems with older children crop up, there are sleepless nights and illnesses, and these are just a few of the things we can face at this time. thank-you notes can slip quickly to the bottom of the priority list, and rightly so. thank-you notes or other acknowledgements are always nice, but not something we require of our moms readjusting to family life with a new member. so if you get a thank-you card, an email, an e-card, or a phone call to acknowledge your effort, bonus! if not, know that your understanding means as much to the new mom as your meal did…..the world.
10. i’m expecting and i’d love to take advantage of this amazing program. what should i do?
email me, girl! kelly.rutledge@yahoo.com
11. i know someone who has a problem, and they could really use help with meals right now, too. is helping hands for them?
only if the problem stems from pregnancy or childbirth. otherwise, we have another program for them, called MOMAS. essentially, helping hands is set up for pregnant and newly not-pregnant moms, and MOMAS is for anything else that might come up. so if you know of someone with a need and you’d like to discuss it, you might start with your playgroup leader and make sure they’re aware. then, contact la rhe o’neal for further information about this program.
