Groceries for Families: Week 12 - Day 3
What started as rain this morning, quickly shifted to dry and then a beautiful sunny afternoon. Love that! It’s so nice to be warm and dry. It simply makes everything easier. The operation went very smoothly all day, with a nice pace of families coming in the afternoon.
Today’s groceries came from Bellevue Presbyterian, Highland Covenant, Bellevue Christian Reformed, and St. Louise churches, as well as the Jubilee Friends group. A total of 154 grocery orders came in and all went out to families today, including 2 by delivery. Thank you to all who donated today!
24-Seven Delivery
BCRC Delivery
Personal hygiene items were offered today for the last time this week. We were able to add ‘liquid hand soap’ to the list, which is very popular. Thank you to everyone who helped fill the pantry this week. If you don’t already know, there is a weekly email that goes out on Wednesday afternoons listing the needed pantry items. If you’d like to be on that distribution list, please email Ashley at ashleyp@jubileereach.org.
Wednesday is a day where lots of fresh chicken comes into the Jubilee REACH Center.
Barb and Kate (see to the right for picture) are here from 10am-2pm to divide it all into ziplock bags and get it into the freezer.
Today they froze 560 pounds, getting it ready for Thu-Sat. Thank you!
Tomorrow bulk ingredient foods will be available to families: rice, pinto beans, sugar, salt, flour.
Thank you to everyone who donated these items all week.
Freezing Chicken
You often hear the references to AM crew and PM crew. These are primarily Jubilee employees (School Site Coaches, Thrift Store, and Administration) who are staffing the operation of this grocery program. Here’s a little more insight…
AM Crew: This crew typically consists of 4-5 people scheduled from 9:30am-12:30pm. Their main role is to receive the incoming groceries from delivering shoppers and bring them into the lobby of the Jubilee building. The groceries are sorted, typically by church or group, and all the cold items are removed to nearby refrigerators. The orders are quickly inventoried for missing or extra items. Secondarily, this crew also received all incoming pantry items and hauls them to the larger space beyond the lobby. They also are responsible for setting up the daily market. Of course, there are regularly other things which pop up for them to manage.
PM Crew: This crew typically consists of 6-8 people scheduled from 12:30-3:30pm. Upon arrival, they start filling the first-out grocery orders with cold items and TP. Those who are working outside with families get the I-pad and check-in slips ready. We do an orientation and prayer about 12:50pm and open the operation right at 1:00pm’ish. Two people are out with the families checking in. One person oversees the market. Two people are passing out groceries to families. Two people are inside filling groceries with cold items. One or two people are carrying groceries for people to their cars. Everyone has a role, yet there is plenty of job sharing and pitching in all the time. Once 3pm passes and the flow of families stops, everyone’s last job is to reset the lobby for the next day – refilling diapers, pantry items, TP, etc.
Saturday: As you know, Saturday is different. There is only one crew of 8-10 people. They do the AM crew responsibilities from 8:30-10:00am and then the PM crew responsibilities from 10:00am-12:30pm.
Today’s PM Crew
There were 39 new families coming today for the very first time, and it is very easy to spot them in line. At the front of the line, they are very unsure of the process for receiving groceries and have no idea there is a separate market area. We try to shower them with a warm welcome and a feeling that they belong to this community. It’s so great to be giving them food, provided to them with lots and lots of love from all of you.
Thanks for another great day. Enjoy the warm evening, wherever you are.
Ken Carpenter
Service Coordinator, Jubilee REACH
On behalf of the Jubilee family
