by Melissa Garber, Gulf Response VISTA, HandsOn New Orleans

Walking into the Community Center of St. Bernard Parish it was immediately clear that it is an invaluable resource to the community. St. Bernard Parish was decimated after Hurricane Katrina and Rita. Every single house in the parish received water damage, and it is the only county in the United States to ever be completely inundated in water.

I was visiting the center as a representative of HandsOn New Orleans, to check out what they are doing for the community. I joined HandsOn at the beginning of September as their Gulf Response VISTA. St. Bernard was doubly hit by the oil spill, many of the parish’s residents were fishermen and shrimpers, and the need for resources has increased.

The Community Center officially opened in January 2007 as a direct response to the devastation that is still wholly visible five years after Katrina. Iray Nabatoff, the center’s volunteer Executive Director since its inception, manages a staff made up entirely of volunteers. They provide residents with badly needed services like a media center with Internet, printers and phones, the Mustard Seed Clothing Bank, the Mustard Seed Food Pantry, Red Cross Disaster Preparedness Training, legal aid and so much more. The center even serves as a temporary location for the Office of Family Support, because even five years later the parish still does not have a permanent OFS office.

With Make a Difference Day right around the corner, I knew HandsOn could do something, anything, to help the community center and the people of St. Bernard Parish. I decided on a food drive that could span across HandsOn New Orleans network of community partners, businesses, non-profits and schools. My food drive has hit the ground running, and, come October 23, we’ll have positively impacted a keystone institution that truly supports the residents of St. Bernard Parish.

So whether you’re in the Greater New Orleans area or not, take an opportunity to check out your local community center, donate to your local food bank, and look for a way to give back this Make a Difference Day.

Melissa Garber is the Gulf Response VISTA for HandsOn New Orleans. This is her second term with AmeriCorps and her second year in Louisiana. She couldn’t imagine living and serving anywhere but New Orleans.

For more information about the Community Center of St. Bernard Parish go to http://www.ccstb.org/.  For more information about HandsOn New Orleans go to http://www.handsonneworleans.org/. And finally if you’d like to know more about the food drive I’m organizing for National Make a Difference Day please contact her at .