Food Pantry
The main purpose of Samaritan House is to provide emergency food for those in need.  A food order is designed to feed all members of the household three meals a day for 14 days.  During our 2010 budget year, the Samaritan House food pantry filled 2,441 requests for groceries.  This equates to feeding 7,074 individuals three meals a day for 14 days!


Shelter & Utility Assistance Shelter Assistance provides financial help to avoid eviction, or for payment of the first month's rent on move in.  Last year 27 households received assistance through this program.  Utility assistance is designated to help keep water, natural gas, propane gas, heating oil and electrical service in operation.  23 households benefited from this program.


Neighbors Caring for Neighbors Clinic

Neighbors Caring for Neighbors Outreach Clinic, a collaborative effort between Henry Ford Hospital Macomb and Samaritan House, is a beacon of hope to uninsured and low-income families living in the surrounding communities.  We treat chronic health problems including high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, thyroid disease and asthma.  Acute health problems treated include flu-like symptoms, earaches, strep, urinary tract infection, flu and dermatitis.  We also treat limited women's health issues, and provide employment physicals.  To qualify for treatment, the patient should not have any medical coverage for office visits and annual income level must be under $30,000 for a family and $20,000 for individuals.  Last year, the clinic received a little over 800 office visits.


Easter and Thanksgiving Holiday Meals
Clients are afforded the opportunity to pick up a $15 gift certificate for the meat of their choice and a box of food specially packed to supply the items needed for a traditional Easter dinner in the spring and a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in November.  Last year, 347 families participated in the Easter program and 330 families picked up food for Thanksgiving.

Back-to-School Backpacks
This program offers students entering preschool through the eighth grade, a new age and gender appropriate backpack filled with suitable school supplies plus a $20 Payless Shoes gift certificate.  374 backpacks were distributed in August 2010.

eCare Clothing Assistance Program

Our eCare Program is a unique means to help clothe our clients and also encourage the community to pass along their gently used clothing.  When our client defines a clothing need to us, an email is generated to our network of over 230 eCare donors.  The email request includes the desired items, and the age, gender and size of the person in need.  If an eCare donor has an item that meets the description, the donor brings the clothes to Samaritan House.  Last year, 85 individuals received clothing valued at $4,289.38.


Other Assistance
As an independent Christian organization, Samaritan House is not bound to governmental restrictions.  When a client has a need that may not fall within other specified boundaries, Samaritan House can consider that need.  In the past, Samaritan House has been able to assist with water well pumps, structural repairs to dwellings, medical needs, and furnace and water heater replacement.  Much of this assistance was given in cooperation with other agencies.  This program assisted 85 people at the cost of $3,745.31 for the fiscal year.


Free Tax Preparation Program

Samaritan House partners with the Accounting Aid Society to prepare State and Federal Income Tax forms with no charge to the client.  The maximum income guidelines for this service for the 2011 fiscal year is $25,000 gross for an individual and $50,000 for a family.  In 2010, 173 people came to Samaritan House to have their tax forms prepared and over $257,000 was returned to the community through this free program.  Samaritan House has offered this program for six years.  During that time over $1.3 million has been refunded to local residents.


Sharing Tree

This program is designed to ensure that every member of each participating household has gifts under their tree on Christmas morning plus the makings of a traditional Christmas dinner.  In October, clients meet with Sharing Tree volunteers to complete their wish list.  The wish list indicates a clothing item and hobby or game item for each person.  A tag is created by the volunteer team describing a wish.  The tags are distributed to our sponsoring churches, local businesses and many organizations.  The generous people of our community fulfill the wishes.  Each household is also given gift certificates to local stores to purchase food for Christmas dinner.  Romeo and Washington Goodfellows, Ray Twp. Ladies Firefighters Aux., Shepherd’s Gate Lutheran Church and Samaritan House provide the gift certificates.  To complete the Christmas 2009 program, 386 people donated a total of 1,501 hours, this figure does not account for the time the individuals used to purchase the 2,154 gifts that touched the lives of 1,008 people.