Started on one block. Still block by block.
Darnell Osei
Darnell started Community First Alliance eleven years ago by organizing a single Saturday food pantry out of his own church basement, three blocks from where he grew up. Eleven years later the alliance runs three programs across 28 blocks — but the basement pantry is still there, still Saturdays.
He's still in the room for every new program pitch, and still insists every dollar be traceable back to a specific block.
Neighbors on the committee.
Relief requests go through a volunteer committee that lives on the blocks we serve — not a staff office downtown.
92 cents of every dollar.
Straight to programs — audited every year, and the audit is posted publicly, not just available on request.
One block, then the next.
We don't expand into a new block until the one before it has a volunteer team that can run without us.
“I came out for a single tree-planting Saturday and ended up mentoring a kid down the street. Watching him get into his first-choice trade school — that's the whole thing, right there.”— Marcus Ellery, Rise youth mentor and weekend crew lead, one of 300+ neighbors giving a few hours a month
Fund the block you believe in.
$40 fills a pantry for a week. $150 backs a mentor for a semester.
See How to Help