Groceries for Families: Week 7 - Day 4

Contrasting with yesterday’s weather, today was just perfect – sunny and very pleasant.  It felt so good to be outside this afternoon with the families.  The sunshine helps everyone feel better and happier…at least it feels that way to me. 😊

Groceries today were delivered by Doxa, Sacred Heart, Overlake Park Presbyterian, Redeemer, Bellevue Presbyterian, and Kalos churches.  A total of 150 orders were delivered and all of them went out to families, including about 25 by delivery. 

Doxa Church Delivery

OPPC Delivery

Families were provided bulk ingredient items and frozen chicken today.  Chicken is becoming very difficult to get in the volume we need. 

It is item #1 on our need list, as we aim to provide families protein with every order.

Today was Day 2 of the Mother’s Day Special, and it was as lovely as yesterday.  Due to privacy, I can’t share all the pictures, but I’ll describe them to you.  There are no “make you cry” stories, but women were very happy to be recognized.  There’s a sweet picture of two friends who always come together.  Maria is funny and loves being here.  There’s a picture of a mother and daughter who come together every Monday and Thursday.  There’s a nice picture of a mom and four daughters waiting for her in the car.  One woman told us her husband will be very happy she is receiving the gifts because he was feeling bad they had no money for him to get her anything.

The candy looks so lovely wrapped with ribbon and paper.  The flowers are overwhelming with their color.  The cards offer a warm greeting.  Together they make quite an amazing package to hand each mother.  Kate and Mary were the team handing the gifts out, and I’m sure they fought to keep their own emotion in check.

Daniel

Daniel came out to serve with us today.  He is my partner in leading this program.  His responsibility, along with the support of others, is to communicate with all the families and keep that side of the program organized.  He clearly had a blast watching over the market and carrying groceries.

A few emails to share from families:

-Gracias a toda la comunidad jubilee rich, por proveer lo necesario ante esta pandemia, mil gracias  a todas  las personas  que aportan  un granito para toda una comunidad  que lo esta necesitando. Gracias 

Thank you to the Jubilee REACH community, for providing the necessaries during this pandemic. A thousand thanks to all the people who give their grain of sand to a whole community who is really needing it. Thank you.

-I truly cannot thank you and Jubilee REACH enough for your kindness. Me and the kids have been put through the ringer these last few months. I left their father and took the kids with me, and we have a domestic violence protection order against him. And now somehow with the merger child support, our SNAP food assistance decreased to $200. As I'm sure you can imagine, this "income" doesn't even cover rent. Life Spring has been helping with rent, and I'm forever grateful. 

-The food and toilet paper have been so kind and needed. We've received a couple bags, and the little treats make it feel like Christmas! We couldn't remember the last time we had bacon or a chocolate bar! The kids wanted s'mores last week, so we tried to make them with chocolate chips and tiny marshmallows, and it didn't turn out well. We got lots of laughs though! I hid two of the chocolate bars to surprise them with real s'mores sometime soon. The kids also loved the cup of noodles, and I got to tell stories about how often we ate that in college. For all you've done for us, I cannot thank you enough. 

Food Truck

A food truck is in the Jubilee parking lot as this summary gets written.  A church-sponsored 120 vouchers, which we handed out to families today.  Each family who could commit to coming back for dinner received two vouchers.  At last count 15 minutes ago, 76 had been redeemed.  More are coming now.  What a great way to help families and help a food truck business.  Thank you!

Thank you all for the continued support and, especially today, the additional support with flowers and cards.  What a great day here!

Have a great evening,

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