January 12, 2021

Here we are already at week 20 of Version 2 of ‘Groceries for Families’, which is week 42 from the beginning in March. Today’s weather brought warmer temperatures and lots & lots of rain. The lawn where the families line up is waterlogged. Thankfully, the layer of straw keeps people above the standing water. The morning was very, very busy with lots of happy people dropping off groceries, milk, and pantry items. Thank you, everyone! Wow! Families filled every cone position at the 1:00pm opening time, and the line stayed long until it finally ended right at 3:30pm. It was great to see so many people coming. Great day!

Groceries today were provided by Crossroads Bible, Awakening, Bellevue Christian Reformed, Covenant Presbyterian, Cornerstone Fellowship, Bellevue Presbyterian, East Shore Unitarian, Evangelical Chinese, Creekside Covenant, and Westminster Chapel. A total of 180 orders were expected and 199 were actually delivered. Thank you for the extras! All 199 went out to families today, along with 35 orders carried over from last week. Busy day!!! Thank you to everyone who donated today.

At the beginning of the week, there are lots of food deliveries:

Volunteers brought donated food from Safeway Thrasher’s Corner
Volunteers brought donated food from QFC Crossroads yesterday and today
Purchased eggs were delivered by Costco (42 cases of 15 dozen eggs in cartons)
Volunteers brought donated food from Safeway Overlake
Volunteers brought donated food from Trader Joe’s Overlake
Purchased food was delivered from Smart Foodservice, which is the fresh produce

Most of this food will be divided between Tue, Wed, and Thu. All of the food brought by volunteers fills the market, so people have a variety and can choose for themselves. It is wonderful. Thank you to everyone who helps make this happen.

The AM volunteers came from Cornerstone Fellowship Church today. This team of 8 was busy from the start and worked hard right up to the final bell. They sorted all the incoming groceries, packed food boxes, and handled all the milk. Thank you, crew!

We’re continuing to watch the USDA Food Box program unfold. Bids are being submitted now by distributors. We should know within a week who in King County received the big. We will work to get on their list to receive boxes each day. Once bids are awarded, it will take 2-3 weeks for supply chains to form. You can follow things here: https://www.ams.usda.gov/selling-food-to-usda/farmers-to-families-food-box. We are awaiting ‘Round 5’. Stay tuned!

A picture of Ken wearing a ‘New Family Sticker’ on the right. When a family is added to the program from the waiting list, we ask them to wear the sticker while they go through the operation, so the crew knows they need extra assistance. It works so well and was very visible today with new families entering the program. Here are the steps:

The families received an email yesterday, saying a spot has opened for them in the program. They are invited to come from 1-3pm on their designated day.
The family arrives today and waits in line with everyone else.
When they reach the front, Denisse greets them and replaces their ‘waiting list’ orange ID card with a ‘GFF’ white ID card. She hands them a slip so they can choose pantry items and explains the process. She gives them a sticker and then walks them the next 10 feet so they go in the right direction.
Next, Barb greets them at the ‘Dish Soap and Cooking Oil’ station. Here she gives them a new bottle of dish soap and a new bottle of cooking oil, explaining they can bring them back weekly to refill.
Next, one of the crew greets them and takes their pantry slip, escorting them to the very front of the line.
While their pantry items are filled, another crew greets them and starts to fill their QFC shopping cart. They are given a choice of meat and milk. All items are loaded into the cart, and the crew explains what each of them is.
Next, the market attendant greets them and explains they can take their cart to the car first, and then return to shop through the market. After shopping in the market, they are wished a good day by everyone who sees them.

Watching this happen is beautiful. At each step, the person feels important and welcomed. They smile and are clearly grateful for the extra attention. We are glad they are here!

We begin this week with 702 families in the GFF program, down slightly from last week. With 60 families on the waiting list, we made the decision to invite them all into the program this week. Not all will come, but we expect about 30-35 will. Today, there were 15 new families coming off the waiting list into the full program. A new waiting list has now started and already has 3 families on it. We want to balance the resources of the program with the desire to help as many families as possible. It has been four weeks since families were added, so the timing feels right. Please pray for these new families.

When Version 2 of ‘Groceries for Families’ started on September 1, the timeline was for it to go until January 31, which is halfway through the school year. At that time, we would reassess the situation and decide what to do. That decision has been made, which is to extend another 5 months until June 30, which will cover the full school year. We’re in the process of asking all partner churches and organizations to consider continuing. So far, the response is very positive. If you are interested in receiving details about how this decision was made and what markers we will be watching for over the next 5 months, we are happy to share them. Just reply to the email with such a request, and we’ll send it to you.

Thank you for your continued support of these sweet families. Thank you for the extra milk, too.

Bless you all,

Ken Carpenter
Director- Community Care, Jubilee REACH
On behalf of the Jubilee family

Groceries for Families: Week 42 - Day 1

Groceries for Families: Week 42 - Day 2

Groceries for Families: Week 41 - Day 3