Our Friends,

(Volunteer opportunities are available at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b094daeaf2fa6fc1-volunteer, including tomorrow and all this week.)

The second week of V2 started off a bit ominous with the smoke and higher temperatures. We kept the building closed up this morning to keep the smoke out. By 8am, however, the smoke started to leave and by 9am it was much improved. We quickly opened the building up for fresh air to circulate. The hot temperature kept away for today, which was a blessing. Tuesday is the busy day of the week, so was hopping with lots of shoppers dropping off groceries and pantry items. The afternoon saw over 190 families come through. Busy day!

Groceries today came from Bellevue Christian Reformed, Crossroads Bible, Covenant Presbyterian, Evangelical Chinese, Westminster Chapel, Bellevue Presbyterian, Creekside Covenant and Cornerstone churches, as well as the Jubilee Friends group. A total of 178 orders came in today and all went out to families. We were a little short of orders today but had enough items collected to make orders to easily close the gap. Thank you to everyone who participated today. Such a great day!

Families are offered pantry items to go along with their groceries. Today the list included diapers, wipes, laundry soap, rice, pinto beans, sugar, salt, corn meal flour, pet food & litter. The crew does a great job of quickly packing the requested items. All are popular and very important for families. Thank you to everyone who continues to donate these pantry items. An email goes out on Wednesday with the priority list of such items. It you want to receive that email, reply back with a request.

We want to welcome a few new partners who will be providing groceries and pantry items: Newport Covenant Church, Calvary Chapel Eastside Church, Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club, Bellevue Kiwanis. Welcome!

Senior lunches were delivered today by Barb and her crew to 25 people in the community. Thank you, Barb and crew!

The food truck will be here on Thursday this week from 4-7pm. It is Mexican food from Ay Guey! It is one of the best. Come if you can.

A personal story from Ken:

Last week, Tuesday was the first day of the new version of this program. As I sat in my home drinking coffee very early, I was praying about the day. One thing not figured out yet was how we were going to get shopping done for a number of food items we needed to purchase that day. I prayed through that asking for help to figure it out. When I reached Jubilee, Randy Eng, Jubilee Exec Dir, arrived with me, and we chatted a bit. He suddenly said that last night he was in the driveway with a neighbor talking about this program. She offered to shop for us, if we ever had a need. Wow, that was a fast answer to the prayer. I called Irene minutes later. She was at Jubilee 30 minutes later. Shopping was done soon after. That’s honestly how things roll around here very, very often. We have no idea how something will happen or get done, until all of a sudden a solution presents itself. This is often through one of you. Thank you for being answers to so many prayers! Furthermore to the story, many other shoppers have now come forward, so the daily shopping is taken care of. Thank you!

Time-off update from Ken:

Beginning Thursday of this week, I will be taking some time off, returning September 28. It has been a wonderful 6 month run from early March to this point. My brain and body need an break. It takes a lot to get me tired, and I can honestly admit to being so now. In my absence, Erika Dull, Alleigha Bizik and Sam Childers will be running the program. They have been walking along side me for weeks, so are ready to go. Plus, the crew of very high performing superstars is very experienced and capable of taking on any challenge. These are wonderful people, let me tell you. Erika will be monitoring my email account, so all communication can still be the same for all of you. She will respond. Please pray for me. Our oldest child, Evan, heads off to college on Friday, which will be a very emotional day for mom and dad. Our daughters are both in high school at Newport. It’s time I reconnect with them more and get caught up on the to-do list around the house. Thank you for all love and support shown to me daily by all of you. I feel it and am so glad to be close to you through this program. If you need me, get me tomorrow before it’s too late.

We begin week 2 with 484 families in the ‘Groceries for Families’ program. What’s great about starting over with registration, is all of these are showing up. Our no-show factor is very small. Love that! Walk-in’s continue to be added at around 5-10 every day, so it is steadily growing.

Thanks for another great day. Enjoy the evening, wherever you are.

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

Groceries for Families: Week 25 - Day 1

Groceries for Families: Week 25 - Day 2

Groceries for Families: Week 24 - Day 3