Groceries for Families: Week 33 - Day 1
Week 11 of the 2nd Version of ‘Groceries for Families’ starts today with a very busy and smooth-running operation. The weather felt shaky at the beginning but the rain held off all day. The temperature seemed to hover in the mid-40’s, which felt just fine if you kept moving. The morning was a steady flow of incoming groceries, pantry items, and milk. The afternoon was very, very busy with a line of at least 20 deep all afternoon until 3:15pm. The crew did a great job of serving people while also keeping the line moving. Another great day! Thank you.
BelPres Delivery
Evangelical Chinese Delivery
Groceries today were provided by Westminster Chapel, Creekside Covenant, Cornerstone, Crossroad Bible, Bellevue Presbyterian, Bellevue Christian Reformed, Evangelical Chinese, Covenant Presbyterian and Awakening churches, as well as the Jubilee Friends group. A total of 160 orders were brought and another 45 extra orders were carried over from last week. All 205 went out to families today. That is a lot!!! Thank you to everyone who donated today.
The call for milk went out on Sunday and you all answered it with total generosity & care. At least 400 gallons arrived yesterday and today. Each family received a ½ gallon in their grocery bag today and then were invited to take more as they needed from the market. It is such a blessing to be able to offer extra fresh milk. Families were very, very happy. Thank you for being such a responsive and giving community. There is enough milk leftover to offer tomorrow’s family the same invitation to take extra.
The reason for the need for milk is because the new USDA food boxes were delayed one day. So no boxes came today. We have received confirmation they will come tomorrow for the first time. We are anxious to see the contents and how it will impact the operation. Delivery is expected sometime tomorrow morning. Stay tuned!
Fresh produce obtained through two different grants from King County was delivered yesterday by Cascadia Produce. A small amount went into a market on Monday for senior citizens in our community. About 50 have been invited. Yesterday about 30 came and another 10 were delivered today with the senior lunches. The larger produce delivery was for the grocery program and started to go out today. In the delivery: Brussel sprouts (on the stalk), red beets, green cabbage, cilantro, butternut squash, kale. All of it comes from farms in King County. So great!
Fresh Produce Delivery
Picnic Tables
The area around the picnic tables had already turned to mud with the recent rains and the area under the main carport on the lawn was headed that way.
One of you donated and delivered three bales of straw, which was spread nicely by volunteers.
Today was the first day to use it with families and it was great. The picnic tables were used once more, whereas they had been avoided because of the mud. More than one family asked when the barnyard animals are coming next. Very funny and quite appropriate. Thank you to the donors!
Today’s AM Crew
The AM volunteer crew came from Highland Covenant Church this morning.
They were exceptionally busy with the grocery inflow, the food bag packing, and handling all the incoming milk. They did an outstanding job and had a lot of fun. Thank you crew!
If you’d like to bring a crew of 8 to work this unique shift, sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b094daeaf2fa6fc1-volunteer1.
Here’s a very fun story which will amaze you:
New Refrigerator
The Jubilee kitchen reach-in refrigerator is very old and has been on its last legs for years. Over the summer, it was breaking down every 6 weeks or so, not cooling to more than 50 degrees. In this operation, it is very difficult to be down one of the main refrigerators, as you can imagine. We would have it repaired for $300-$500, only to have it die again. It happened again in mid-October. This time, Barb, the Hospitality Manager, firmly requested we simply buy a new one, rather than continuing to suffer the ongoing trouble. It was soon agreed a grant would be sought to cover the large expense. Barb and Ken agreed to simply wait & run the operation down one refrigerator. We agreed to pray about it and let go of the worry. That was October 26. The next day, October 27, a couple was dropping off groceries approached Ken with a question. “Do you have enough refrigeration?” That is an odd question. We usually have enough, sort of. “Yes, but do you have any refrigeration needs?”, they persisted. Well, the largest need is the replacement of the kitchen reach-in refrigerator, explaining to them the story briefly. “We want to buy you a new one.” What!? Three days later, on Oct 30, the new refrigerator was ordered, with a delivery date of the end of November. Wow! Such a blessing. Wait, there’s more. The call for milk on Sunday put an immediate strain on refrigeration here. There simply would not be enough for all the incoming milk, plus the normal items needing to be cold. Plan B was not yet uncovered. Somehow, word came the new refrigerator would be delivered Monday morning, three weeks early. What?! Sure enough, a large delivery truck arrived yesterday. Within an hour, it was installed. (See picture of Barb on the right with the new unit.) Soon after, it was cold, and by the end of Monday, it was full of milk. Without it, we would have had to take milk offsite for refrigeration or filled many bins with ice. How’s that for a good story? Thank you, thank you to these wonderful and generous donors, who somehow followed a nudge to ask about refrigeration and turned out to be an answered prayer.
As this email shared on Thursday, laundry pods and diapers are the largest pantry need. Our supply of diapers has reach a point where we will run out soon of some sizes. A wholesale order has been placed, but won’t arrive until the end of November. We have three weeks to cover before then. Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.
We begin this week with 672 families in the ‘Groceries for Families’ program (222 Tuesday, 232 Wednesday, 218 Thursday. There were 21 new families added last week. There are 66 families we are trying to assist to come more frequently before being removed from the program for poor attendance. There have been 31 families removed from the program since September 1.
Today’s PM Crew
The need of this support remains very steady. With the pandemic continuing and the virus numbers in the state & King county climbing, the chance for jobs to return quickly is suppressed. Thank you for all you are doing to support this program and these dear members of our community. It is exactly where we all are called to be. Please keep going. You can get friends involved through the Jubilee Friends site: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0b49a5aa2ba3fd0-jubilee. More help is needed.
Have a great evening,
Ken Carpenter
Director- Community Care, Jubilee REACH
On behalf of the Jubilee family
