Today marks week 16 of version 2 of the ‘Groceries for Families’ program. The weather was rainy in the morning, calm around noon, and then turned stormy in the afternoon. By the late afternoon, it was quite windy. Fortunately, none of this impacted the operation much. Typical winter day around here. The morning was buzzing early with lots of people bringing in groceries and pantry items. Families have lined up the length of the canopies all afternoon, with no break. It was super busy, with the operation not ending until 3:45pm, which is 15-30 minutes longer than desired. We had 15 people come from the waiting list today and 30-35 people from Wed & Thu come today. That is an extra 50 people today, which explains the long shift. The holidays are definitely causing a time crunch for families. In the end, it was another great day.

Groceries today came from the Jubilee Friends group (a record 28!), as well as Evangelical Chinese, Covenant Presbyterian, Awakening, Westminster Chapel, Crossroads Bible, Bellevue Presbyterian, Creekside Covenant, Cornerstone Fellowship, East Shore Unitarian and Bellevue Christian Reformed churches. A total of 200 new orders came in today and all went out to families, along with 39 additional orders held over from last week. Wow! Thank you to everyone who donated.

Lots of deliveries came in Sunday, Monday and today. Sunday, volunteers brought food from Safeway Thrasher’s Corner in Bothell.

Monday, volunteers brought food from Safeway Overlake and QFC Crossroads. Monday, produce was delivered by Cascadia Produce as part of a King County grant program. Today, volunteers brought food from QFC Crossroads. Today, Medosweet Farms delivered food boxes. Today, Costco delivered eggs. Lots going on here!

Each week, we are about 100 food boxes short, so have been getting extra boxes weekly from Farmer Frog in Woodinville to fill the gap. Today, Ed took the Jubilee truck to Farmer Frog and came back with 150 food boxes, one pallet extra. Wow! He also brought Brussel sprouts and a huge pallet full of carrots. Carrots are very popular with families. We put a handful in each food box and put boxes of them in the market today. Thank you, Ed and Farmer Frog! We used 43 of the extra boxes today.

The morning volunteer crew today came from Cornerstone Christian Fellowship. This crew of 8 did an awesome job of managing the flow of incoming groceries and packing food boxes. It was busy! Thank you, crew.

Yesterday, we did a weekly market for senior citizens in the community, offering lots of fresh produce and other items delivered from QFC. This is made possible through a King County grant which allows us to purchase fresh produce from King County farms, specifically for King County seniors. About 40 people came yesterday in person. We delivered another 10 today, along with the senior lunches which Barb and her crew made. This silent part of this program is truly special.

We ran out of refrigeration today at the end of the day. One older refrigerator is down right now, and the contents of the extra food boxes filled the other two up fast. Fortunately, Bellevue Christian Reformed Church offered to hold the remaining bins of food for a few days. Volunteers hauled about 8 bins to the church this evening. Thank you, BCRC and Max & Steve.

A few fun notes:

Lunch was brought for the crew today by two ladies. Maria, who often brings food on Tuesdays, brought tamales. Yum! Angelina brought burritos. See attached picture. It is very common for people to say thank you by bringing food. These thanks are also for you, so please feel their love back to you for all you do. (the burritos were very tasty!)
Crossroad Bible Church and their Women’s Ministry created lovely gift bags for all the women in the grocery program. Yesterday, about 700 gift bags were delivered to the Jubilee Library. Today, two volunteers handed out bags to each woman, wanting them to feel special, appreciated, and loved. It was wonderful to see the look of surprise on their faces. Inside were many small feminine items, some holiday cheer, and personal cards. They were wonderful. Thank you, CBC and the many donors who made these women feel special today. It will continue all week.
Some of you have been marveling at the number of churches and organizations bringing groceries daily. It is quite fun to look at the list on the whiteboard each morning. Here’s a quick snapshot for the week.

We start this week with 697 families in the ‘Groceries for Families’ program. We removed 3 families last week and had 49 families on the waiting list. We made the decision to invite the 49 families into the program this week as full participants. (Many of you have been asking about these families – thank you.) As you’ve read, the past two weeks have had days with higher numbers of no-show families. We have learned this is simply because schedules have become busy for families this month. We also believe some families will not be able to come because of the holidays. Yet, the food supply is not less. Therefore, we feel comfortable adding these families now and letting the numbers settle over the next three weeks. Of the 49, 15 came today, exchanging their orange ‘wait list’ card for a white ‘GFF’ card. We expect the rest will come tomorrow and Thursday. We will continue to run a waiting list for any new families which show up each day. It is better to bring them into the program in batches, than one by one. We will keep you posted.

Thank you for another great day. The support from you, the community, is sustaining and even growing. Together, we are helping those most vulnerable in this community. Thank you. Please keep going. Life is very hard for these families, and together we are helping them bridge this gap until some sense of normal returns. Thank you.

Merry Christmas to you all,

Ken Carpenter
Director- Community Care, Jubilee REACH
On behalf of the Jubilee family

Groceries for Families: Week 38 - Day 1

Groceries for Families: Week 38 - Day 2

Groceries for Families: Week 37 - Day 3