ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Everyday Hero Ray Jones is all about helping people break the cycle of poverty while giving them \u201chope and a hand up\u201d rather than just a handout. He enjoys giving back by way of Orlando nonprofit United Against Poverty.<\/p>\n
Jones can usually be found in action as a volunteer with United Against Poverty. The non-profit helping people or clients get much-needed items at a bargain, they also provide food and help people get jobs.<\/p>\n
Jones\u00a0is a client turned volunteer who knows the benefits of United Against Poverty first hand since the group helped him get a job. Now he\u2019s reaching back to help others by volunteering at the marketplace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no problem with pleasing people because I don\u2019t look at what they are going through or what they had or didn\u2019t have or don\u2019t have now. I just engage with them,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
He likes to get to know people, learning their likes and dislikes in the market. Jones\u00a0has what some might call a knack for this.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may not see it right then and there, but in the long run, when you are all along you say I actually made a difference,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
Joshua St. Jean said, \u201cHe\u2019s like the life of the party everybody knows him. He\u2019s very sociable, people come and they see him and they talk to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Jean is the market place manager, and he says having volunteers like Jones\u00a0keeps the place running like a well-oiled machine.<\/p>\n
Volunteers like Jones\u00a0hold the United Against Poverty mission high, helping people in great need says executive director Anjali Vaya.<\/p>\n
\u201cHelp them through crisis support, food and our workforce program are to improve their lifestyle and to get them to economic sufficiency,\u201d Anjali Vaya said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They will soon do it in a brand new home, bringing all the services including the market grocery store all under one roof.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to take us into this new vision of dignity of even just the grocery center having a dignified experience looking and feeling like a traditional grocery store in itself\u2026it gives me goosebumps,\u201d Anjali Vaya said.<\/p>\n
Jones\u00a0is excited, too. He plans to keep on volunteering, lending a hand pulling others forward toward success.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes you feel good inside by volunteering knowing that you help someone,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Everyday Hero Ray Jones is all about helping people break the cycle of poverty while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3076,1011,274,28293,54687,1548,1190,115,139,141,140,278,835],"class_list":["post-268780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-good-news","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-top-stories","tag-curtis-mccloud","tag-everyday-heroes","tag-good-news","tag-human-interest","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}