Week 21 starts with sunny skies and being very, very busy. The morning was bitter cold, with wet fog sticking to everything. When it finally burned off, the sun came out, and the temperature was tolerable while families were here. The morning was a flurry of people bringing groceries, pantry items, and hygiene items. Thank you everyone! The afternoon had a good size line from the beginning at 1:00pm, right up until 3:30pm. Everything went smoothly, and a lot of food went home with people. Great day!

Groceries were provided today by Awakening, Bellevue Christian Reformed, Covenant Presbyterian, East Shore Unitarian, Bellevue Presbyterian, Crossroads Bible, Cornerstone Fellowship, Creekside Covenant, Evangelical Chinese, and Westminster Chapel churches, as well as the Jubilee Friends group. A total of 182 orders were expected but 212 were delivered. Thank you for the extra. All went out to families today, along with another 16 orders carried over from last week. Very busy! Thank you to everyone who donated today.

The AM volunteers were from Westminster Chapel this morning. This group of 8 braved the cold, wet weather and managed to get everything done with time to spare. Thank you, crew!

Volunteers brought food from Safeway Thrasher’s Corner, QFC Crossroads, Whole Foods Bellevue, Trader Joes Overlake and Safeway Overlake over the past three days. The beginning of the week is always full with the extra foods donated by these store and adds great variety to the market. It will go out over the next three days. Thank you to all the volunteers who make this possible!

People who only see the pictures on this email, sometimes ask about the market, as often described here.

Simply, it is about 20 feet of tables set up in the main operation area where all extra food is displayed for families to “shop”.

Boxes are put under the tables to help with carrying. All the food which comes from grocery stores goes here.

It is a great way for families to be able to choose and to get a variety of foods not offered any other way. We require families to take their QFC cart to their car first, with all the groceries. Then, they can come back and go through the market once. It is very popular. See the picture to the right.

The Newport Hills and Newcastle neighborhoods did a food drive for the program over the weekend. They delivered it all this morning. It is such a great way to involved other people in the community to support the families here. Thank you everyone!

Maria brought beef soup for the crew today. Yum! We will enjoy it tomorrow.

USDA FOOD BOX UPDATE

The contracts for ‘Round 5’ of the ‘Farmers to Families’ were awarded today. https://www.ams.usda.gov/selling-food-to-usda/farmers-to-families-food-box In King County, Cascadia Produce was one of two winners and is the same company we partnered with in November & December during ‘Round 4’. This makes the transition very, very easy, as we have already submitted our need to Cascadia. They confirmed we will receive 240 food boxes on Tue, Wed, and Thu before 10am.

Wait…it gets even better. Cascadia has been working in advance to get their supply chain in order, anticipating winning the bid. They will be able to begin delivering boxes next week. Wow! That is a huge win for the GFF families.

This means milk and meat will be provided in these boxes next week. So this is the last week donors will need to bring the extra milk. We do not yet know the full contents of the boxes. Hopefully, it also includes eggs. More to come.

Round 4 will run through April, so we are covered the next 3+ months.

Additionally, our White Center, Seattle partners at El Dios Viviente Church (aka Jubilee West), will also receive 240 boxes each Tuesday and Saturday afternoon

Thank you for your prayers and continued support during this gap.

We begin week 21 of ‘Groceries for Families’ with 711 families in the program. Of the 60 families on the waiting list at the beginning of last week who were invited into the full program, so far 25 have come back. More will likely come this week. Last week 14 families were removed from the program, mostly due to lack of attendance. A new waiting list was started last week and there are now 13 families on it. The breakdown of families each day is 240 Tuesday, 243 Wednesday, and 228 Thursday.

Here is the breakdown of the number of people in each family: (families with 7 or more people receive two orders of groceries)

1= 9
2= 49
3= 108
4=186
5=190
6=109
7=27
8=24
9=4
10=3
11=1
12=0
13=1

Thank you for another great day in the ‘Groceries for Families’ program. As shared last week, the program has been extended to June 30, which will get through the school year. We are watching many markers to see if the program will begin to trend with fewer families. Getting the hospitality & restaurant industry back would have a huge impact.

Have a great evening, wherever this email finds you tonight.

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

Groceries for Families: Week 43 - Day 1

Groceries for Families: Week 43 - Day 2

Groceries for Families: Week 42 - Day 3