Groceries for Families: Week 11 - Day 3
Today felt like a very normal, average day…which is just fine. Lots of groceries coming in the morning, along with various drop-offs of bulk items. Lovely weather. Families showing up all afternoon. Happy people. Fun conversations. Good times.
Groceries today were provided by Bellevue Presbyterian, Highland Covenant, Bellevue Christian Reformed, and St. Louise churches. A total of 169 orders came in and all went out to families today, including six by delivery. Thank you for all the coordination to have the deliveries come so smoothly. It makes for a great morning of welcoming people as the drop-off. Thank you!
St. Louise Delivery
Highland Covenant Church Delivery
Holy Cross Lutheran Church near Factoria has many gardens on their property which are beginning to produce vegetables. One of their gardeners brought fresh lettuce yesterday and today for the market. Wow, what lovely greens! Picture on the right. She thinks more of their gardeners will be bringing fresh produce here all summer. How awesome is that! Thank you.
Late yesterday, two ladies appeared at the door with two large bags of hand-sewn face masks to donate. They live nearby, had seen the activity, and thought masks would be helpful.
Today, we passed them out to any family member who had a paper mask on. Total fun!
Thank you. See picture on the left
Hygiene and bulk item delivery
Today was the last day to hand out personal hygiene and laundry detergent. In yesterday’s email, it was noted we were short on a few hygiene items. A few people rallied to fill the gap and had the pantry full again for those items by noon today. We were able to put out a full list for families. Thank you!
A few personal stories from Ken:
Today, I was carrying groceries for someone across the parking lot, when I saw Daniel (one of our crew members) kneeling outside a mini-van and praying with a family. It was very touching. There were two people standing next to Daniel and a man sitting in the van, who was obviously the focus. I asked Daniel about it. They are a family in the ‘before and after school program’ at Jubilee, so were one of the first families in this grocery program. The dad had pneumonia in April, which sent him to the hospital and left him unable to move. Today is the first day of physical therapy, which they were heading to right after the grocery pick up. Daniel knows them well and simply prayed a blessing over this first visit. Nice.
There is a woman who has been coming about a month on Wed & Sat. I’ve noticed her mainly because she always looks scared and nervous behind her mask. At first, I thought it was because she was new to the who grocery pick up, but the look has persisted. Today, I introduced myself and learned her name is Lola. I asked if everything was ok in her life, saying she looks worried. She said life is hard right now. I asked if there was anything else we could do to help her. She didn’t have an answer. There is clearly something going on inside this home and within her. I hope to build trust with her and peel back the layers a little bit at a time. She is hurting.
Thanks for another great day. The love that is poured into every delivery to Jubilee is felt by the crew and passed to the families. Just know that it is carried forward.
We’ve opened up a few volunteer slots in the early AM and late PM to help get things done for this program which falls through the cracks.
If you’d like to volunteer, sign up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b094daeaf2fa6fc1-volunteer.
Be open-minded and come to serve. You are invited.
Have a great evening,
Ken Carpenter
Service Coordinator, Jubilee REACH
On behalf of the Jubilee family
