Please direct any media inquiries to:
Ellen Whitten
Director of Impact and Communications
ewhitten@mifa.org
(901) 529-4507
News Archive
An archive of our recent media coverage is below.
Thursday, September 9, 2021
Opinion: ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ and ‘Heavy’ authors to share Memphis stage
By Chris Herrington, Daily Memphian
Elizabeth Gilbert and Kiese Laymon have their differences.
She’s a white woman who’s lived primarily in the east and west, her closest connection to Memphis not particularly close: A semester spent teaching at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
He’s a Black man from Jackson, Mississippi, currently on faculty down the...
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Posted by
Hannah Walker
at
Thursday, September 9, 2021
Thursday, April 1, 2021
Opinion: MIFA lost a staff leader with superpowers
By Sally Jones Heinz , Guest Columnist
Back when the staff of MIFA’s Emergency Services department came to the office — before the pandemic sent us all home to work — you might have wondered why nearly every computer in that department had a Q-tip taped somewhere on it.
It was a gift — a reminder, really — from the director of Emergency Services, Phyllis Phillips. It meant: Q...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Thursday, April 1, 2021
Monday, October 5, 2020
Featured on Action News 5
By Chris Luther
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Evictions are a topic of great concern among housing experts nation-wide as the economic crisis surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
Although there’s currently a national moratorium on evictions through the end of the year, experts say the problem of evictions is not going anywhere.
Leaders at MIFA hope their event can lead to real solutions for Memphis, a city that has struggled with an eviction...
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at Monday, October 5, 2020
Monday, September 28, 2020
Our City, Our Story: MIFA hosts acclaimed sociologist who shows that evictions deepen poverty
By Tom Bailey , Daily Memphian
The same MIFA-led “community conversation” that last year influenced a brick-and-mortar solution to homelessness will focus this year on the tide of Memphis evictions.
The second “Our City, Our Story” event will be noon on Wednesday, Oct. 7. The online-only event will feature a talk by, and a Q&A session with,...
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at Monday, September 28, 2020
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Despite pandemic, wheels still rolling at MIFA
By Christin Yates
July 28, 2020
With its staff, volunteers — most of whom are seniors — and clients all at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, MIFA knew it had to change the way it operates significantly to continue its mission of uniting the Memphis community through service.
Since the pandemic began in March, Metropolitan Interfaith Association (MIFA) has had to make daily decisions and changes to continue providing...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
At MIFA, ‘We had to get the meals out’
By Sally Jones Heinz
April 17, 2020
It’s hard to remember what the world was like just a few weeks ago, before we tuned up our laptops and learned to work from home, and before we knew what Zoom meetings were.
At MIFA, we made quick decisions about moving applications for emergency assistance online and replacing weekly meetings with conference calls.
But how could we continue to deliver MIFA Meals on Wheels, a service...
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MIFA Meals on Wheels makes adjustments to better serve the community during the COVID-19 outbreak
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — MIFA Meals on Wheels staff and volunteers now wear PPE gear to assembling food boxes for seniors having trouble putting food on their table during COVID-19.
The Aging Commission of the Mid-South is an organization that partners with MIFA to help pay for food supplies.
It is estimated that it takes $3,000 to cover a senior’s meal for the year.
Kim...
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Virus throws a wrench in MIFA’s senior meal delivery system
By Sally Jones Heinz
Doug, a regular MIFA Meals volunteer, was delivering his route in East Memphis on a cold day a few months ago. As usual, he climbed out of his car in his 92-year-old client’s driveway, grabbed her hot meal and milk and knocked on the door.
No answer. He knocked again; he knew she was expecting him.
Finally, he walked around to the back of the house and saw his client on the kitchen...
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MIFA to deliver extra week of meals in case of service disruption
By WMCActionNews5.com Staff | March 12, 2020 at 11:10 PM CDT - Updated March 12 at 11:10 PM
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Many of the most vulnerable Mid-Southerners aren’t getting out to local restaurants, they’re relying on the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association for food deliveries.
As coronavirus concerns rise, MIFA announced Thursday they are working on ways to limit exposure to those...
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Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Featured on Fox 13
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Homelessness is an issue every city in the nation faces. Last year homelessness was up three percent from the year before across the country. FOX13 shares how the country is fighting this issue in Memphis by handing out millions of dollars.
"I came to work, scanned my badge, as I scanned my badge the security officer said to me, oh you're laid off," said Rochelle Clayton, looking for help.
Rochelle Clayton, a mother of...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Monday, January 20, 2020
Featured in The Commercial Appeal
By Sarah Macaraeg
How to end homelessness: Memphis aid providers talk causes and solutions
When Tamara Hendrix began teaching pre-school, she wasn't worried about her low pay. She had recently graduated from Christian Brothers University, and found her job, at a daycare serving families affected by HIV, rewarding.
"I was concentrated on getting the children well and being able to be in a space that was safe for them," Hendrix...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Monday, January 20, 2020
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Featured in The Daily Memphian
By Sally Jones Heinz
MIFA has been on the front lines of addressing hunger and food insecurity in Memphis for 50 years. For many, putting food on the table is a year-long challenge. And each year the holidays seem to heighten the critical need among our vulnerable neighbors.
For example, when school is out, the demand on parents to provide meals their children usually receive at school can be daunting. Last fiscal year, MIFA Emergency...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Featured in The Daily Memphian
By Jill Johnson Piper
When “Tuesday Phil” and “Tuesday Bill” are in the house, no one goes hungry for food or for song.
Every Tuesday morning, Phil Taylor, 84, and Bill Craddock, 73, load up Craddock’s SUV with 17 meals for homebound clients of MIFA’s Meals on Wheels program.
Taylor’s been known to deliver a few verses of the American songbook with the entree. Snow flurries encourage them to...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Friday, November 22, 2019
Featured in The Commercial Appeal
By Katherine Burgess
MIFA volunteer Victoria Vicks hugs members of the MIFA staff as she and her foster mother Tammera Freno pick up meals for delivery. MIFA volunteers delivered over 800 Christmas meals this year. (Photo: Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)
Memphis’ Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA) has received a $5 million grant to combat homelessness from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund.
“We are...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Friday, November 22, 2019
Thursday, November 21, 2019
MIFA Receives Day 1 Families Fund Grant to Help Solve Homelessness
Day 1 Families Fund grants $98.5 million to 32 nonprofits assisting families experiencing homelessness
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – (Nov. 21, 2019) - Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA), an organization that is supporting the independence of vulnerable seniors and families in crisis in Memphis/Shelby County, today announced that it has been selected to receive a $5 million grant from the Day 1 Families Fund.
...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Monday, September 30, 2019
Link to original post with video
by: Jalyn Souchek
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) — Meals on Wheels feeds thousands of senior citizens in need but hundreds more are stuck on a lengthy wait list.
The Aging Commission of the Mid-South says there are more than 600 people waiting to get on the Meals on Wheels program and several have been on the list for longer than a year.
Meals on Wheels is a federally-funded program which is administered at the local level by...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Monday, September 30, 2019
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Link to video here .
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Featured in Time
Why America Is Failing To Feed Its Aging
When Army veteran Eugene Milligan fell off a charity’s rolls for home-delivered Meals on Wheels because of a long stay in the hospital last winter, he had to rely on others such as his son, a local church and a generous off-duty nurse to bring him food.
Andrea Morales for Kaiser Health
BY LAURA UNGAR & TRUDY LIEBERMAN / KAISER HEALTH NEWS
AUGUST 28, 2019
Army veteran...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Friday, August 16, 2019
Featured in The Commercial Appeal
By Sally Jones Heinz
Memphis Inter-Faith Association's inaugural "Our City, Our Story" event will give the community a change to discover the daily reality of the homeless.
According to the 2018 local Point in Time report, the most recent comprehensive census of all persons experiencing homelessness at a given point in time, there were 1,226 homeless individuals in Memphis and Shelby County. 92% were sleeping in emergency...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Friday, August 16, 2019
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Featured in The Daily Memphian
By Sally Jones Heinz
When we spot a homeless person on the street, we most likely see ourselves as the potential benefactor, or not. We almost automatically register a dichotomy: have/have-not, blessed/not blessed, productive/not productive.
But a recent event in Memphis turns that whole way of thinking around.
Dorothy Giles Stansbury, known only to the neighbors near Park and Mt. Moriah as Ms. Jean, lived on that corner for three years, and, when...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Monday, May 13, 2019
Featured in The Daily Memphian
By Michelle Corbet
Beverly Robertson, named president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber greets Steve Wilson, Commercial CEO, Tennessee, Arkansas, southwest Virginia at UnitedHealthcare as he walks up to the podium Monday, May 13, 2019. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
Two brightly colored vans were parked outside of the Greater Memphis Chamber offices Downtown Monday morning.
Dr. Scott...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Monday, May 13, 2019
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Featuring Linda Marks, MIFA's interfaith officer. Click here for video.
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Saturday, September 22, 2018
Featured in The Daily Memphian
By Elle Perry
MIFA volunteer Cookie Ewing gives Hannah Mason a parting hug after delivering a MIFA meal to her Binghampton apartment. Fueled by thousands of volunteers, MIFA, which turns 50 this year, has gone high tech with pre-plotted routes and an app, but deliveries are still made with a personal touch. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian)
MIFA volunteer Cookie Ewing delivers Chattie Hampton’s MIFA meal to her...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Saturday, September 22, 2018
Saturday, September 15, 2018
Featured in The Commercial Appeal
By Katie Fretland
Julia Allen, a 93-year-old lifelong Memphian, closed her eyes and clasped the hands of those beside her beneath a tent near a bed of sun-drenched chrysanthemums on Vance Avenue.
She bowed her head in prayer, as members of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist faiths gave thanks to the volunteers like her who helped the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association become a critical Memphis...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Saturday, September 15, 2018
Monday, September 10, 2018
At the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association, consistent service for a changing Memphis.
by Michael Finger
September 10, 2018
Teams of volunteers from ServiceMaster pack bags of shelf-stable meals for distribution to MIFA's Meals on Wheels clients. Photograph courtesy MIFA.
It’s a Monday morning in August, and Judy Royal parks next to a spacious building on Vance that had once been a supermarket, where she quickly loads the coolers in the back...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Monday, September 10, 2018
Friday, September 15, 2017
Featured in HuffPost
By Linda F. Marks
Neighborly love is not a finite or exhaustible commodity but a spirit — one that strengthens and expands as it is shared.
MIKE SEGAR / REUTERS
Memphis has long been known as the City of Good Abode, a moniker derived from the translation of its Egyptian name. And indeed, its location on a high bluff above the Mississippi River augured well for its establishment in 1819 as a pleasant trading and transportation...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Friday, September 15, 2017
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
MIFA to Participate in Nationwide 2016 March for Meals Memphis, Tenn. (February 29, 2016)
MIFA announced today that it will participate in the 14th annual March for Meals, a month-long, nationwide celebration of Meals on Wheels and the homebound and vulnerable seniors who rely on its vital safety net.
With the help of over 100 volunteers, MIFA’s Meals on Wheels program delivers about 1,800 meals to homebound elderly and seniors at congregate nutrition...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Friday, October 2, 2015
(October 1, 2015) — In collaboration with the City of Memphis and its Community Alliance for the Homeless, MIFA (Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association) is now operating the Emergency Housing Partnership Homeless Hotline for families with children. The new hotline number is (901) 529-4545. Under MIFA’s management, the hotline will operate 24 hours, seven days a week, excluding holidays. The service was launched at MIFA’s midtown headquarters on September 15, the nonprofit organization’s 47th...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Friday, October 2, 2015
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Metropolitan Inter Faith Association Receives $45,000 from the Walmart Foundation Grant to Expand the MIFA Meals on Wheels Program MEMPHIS, Tenn., (August 2015) – MIFA (Metropolitan Inter Faith Association) has received a $45,000 contribution to assist with its Meals on Wheels program. The grant – which was given to the nonprofit organization through the Walmart Foundation’s State Giving Program – will help MIFA deliver more than 15,000 meals this year, allowing the organization to...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information, contact James Seacat (901) 529-4544; jseacat@mifa.org
MIFA Receives $2,500 for Participation
in Meals on Wheels America’s 2015 March for Meals Funding
for the Annual Awareness Campaign
Made
Possible by Subaru of America, Inc.’s “Share the Love” Event Memphis,
Tenn. (June 11, 2015) –
MIFA has received a $2,500 grant from Meals on Wheels America for its
participation in the 13th Annual March for...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Thursday, April 16, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information, contact James Seacat (901) 529-4544; jseacat@mifa.org MIFA receives $1,000 from Meals on Wheels America Subaru’s Share the Love event prompts recognition Memphis, Tennessee (April 14, 2015) — MIFA has been awarded a $1,000 grant from Meals on Wheels America for participation in the 2014-2015 Subaru of America’s Share the Love event. The money will support MIFA’s Meals on Wheels program, helping to address the problems of hunger and...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Thursday, March 26, 2015
CITY OF SOUL: EPISCOPAL SERVICE CORPS IN MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SEEKING APPLICANTS FOR LAUNCH YEAR
Five young people, five organizations, 12 months in a southern city
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Cara Ellen Modisett
cmodisett@holycommunion.org
Memphis, Tenn. – Next summer, City of Soul celebrates its inaugural year: Five young people, five organizations, 12 months in a southern city on the Mississippi River.
City of Soul is the name for one of Episcopal Service...
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Posted by
James Seacat
at
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Monday, January 19, 2015
"BE THE DREAM" WEEKEND CELEBRATES LEGACY OF DR. KING, MEMPHIS CIVIL RIGHTS PIONEERS, AND PROMOTES YOUTH EMPOWERMENT, COMMUNITY SERVICE
CONTACT: Dewanna Smith, PIO
Office of Mayor A C Wharton, Jr. O (901) 576-6032 C (901) 574-1494 Dewanna.smith@memphistn.gov
(Memphis, TN) – The 2nd annual BE THE DREAM MLK Weekend, which coincides with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 19th 2015), will include the MLK Commemorative Celebration, the 2015 BE THE DREAM MLK Legacy Awards,...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Monday, January 19, 2015
Monday, April 28, 2014
MIFA Meals on Wheels Milestone: 20 Millionth Meal Served
On Friday, March 28, MIFA’s Meals on Wheels program served its 20 millionth meal to midtown senior Fred Deckard, age 65. Started in 1976, Meals on Wheels is one of MIFA’s five senior programs designed to promote health and companionship while keeping people independent and living in their homes. Memphis Mayor AC Wharton, Jr. delivered the meal on this landmark day for MIFA and the city’s nonprofit human services safety net. Meals on...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Monday, April 28, 2014
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Kingsway Christian Church and MIFA Collaboration Brings Meals On Wheels to Germantown for First Time Ever
For the first time since its 1976 inception, MIFA Meals on Wheels will roll into the Germantown area - thanks to a new partnership with Kingsway Christian Church.Beginning March 31, Kingsway, located at 7887 Poplar Ave., will sponsor a Meals on Wheels program starting with five homebound seniors living in Germantown. Currently, there is no meals delivery program in this geographic...
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Posted by
James Seacat
at
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Guest column
For 45 years, MIFA efforts have united community
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Sally Jones Heinz, The Commercial Appeal
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Interviews with Sally Heinz, Arnetta Macklin, and others
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Jeremy Park, The Spark
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Friday, February 11, 2011
Sally Jones Heinz is new executive director of MIFA
Memphis, Tennessee (February 11, 2011) - MIFA (Metropolitan Inter-faith Association) today announced the appointment of Sally Jones Heinz, a 27-year veteran in the Memphis nonprofit sector, as its new executive director.
According to Jef Feibelman, chair of MIFA’s board of directors and head of the executive director search committee, “Sally brings a dynamic combination of vision, compassion and leadership acumen to the position. ...
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Friday, February 11, 2011
Thursday, February 18, 2010
MIFA on Voice of America
MIFA is the subject of a feature story produced by Voice of America, a distinguished worldwide network of news and information since 1942. Our story will be seen internationally via satellite TV in 29 languages, and American audiences can view the video online.
Click here to read the article.
Click here to watch the video.
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Posted by
Ellen Whitten
at
Thursday, February 18, 2010