After three days of warm, the skies let loose this morning. As you likely experienced yourself if you live in this area, the thunder and lightning started early, with the heavy rain coming around 8:00am. It was a rough couple of hours. Fortunately, the heavy stuff let up right about 10:15am, so most of the time with families here was tolerable but still very wet.

Groceries today came from Bellevue Presbyterian, Evangelical Chinese, and Victory Court churches. A total of 140 orders came in and all but 15 went out to families. For sure the rain kept some people away, which is normal. The extra orders will go out on Monday, which will be nice as new families come off the waiting list that day. Thank you to all who delivered in the pouring rain this morning! Enjoy the time-lapse, courtesy of Sam, who kindly gives up his phone for three hours each Saturday.

Today Evangelical Chinese Church did an outreach event with two other churches, University Presbyterian and Damascus International Fellowship, to gather high-need items for the grocery program. Wow, what a load they delivered around 12:00pm today! Thank you for this extra effort and partnership with churches across the lake.

You may recall earlier this week we started assembling extra bags of food called “hospitality orders”. These are prepared for families who show up without being in the program. We qualify them and add them to the waiting list, if appropriate. No matter what, we want to send them home with food. Alleigha calls on the radio for a “hospitality order” and someone runs it out to her. All week it has been working beautifully.

Today was the final day of the week for bulk ingredient items. Here’s a tally of the number of bags given out over the three days:

Flour: 173 bags or 353 lbs
Rice: 233 bags or 583 lbs
Beans: 224 bags or 269 lbs
Sugar: 247 bags or 235 lbs
Salt: 228 bags or 149 lbs

As with each Saturday, here’s a look at statistics to date after 10 weeks:

Program Days: 60
Families currently in the program: 552+
People in these families: 2484 (approximate)
Grocery orders provided: 7820
Churches & Organizations engaged: 27
Different shoppers participating: 1000 (approximate)

There are 110+ families on the waiting list currently. We will be bringing 60 of them into the program beginning Monday, which is the first additions in three weeks. As more grocery orders are matched up, we hope to be adding the remainder.

Today marks the last day of week 10 of this ‘Groceries for Families’ program. Things are running very smoothly, thanks to so many people serving together to make this engine run. Thank you for the continued prayers, support, and dedication.

Thanks for a great week. Tomorrow is a day of rest. Be back Monday.

Ken Carpenter
Service Coordinator, Jubilee REACH
On behalf of the Jubilee family

Groceries for Families: Week 10 - Day 6

Groceries for Families: Week 11 - Day 1

Groceries for Families: Week 10 - Day 5