January 28, 2021

The week with families ends on a very good note. The weather was decent enough with scattered rain but nothing serious. The temperature dropped from about 9am-12pm which put a crisp chill in the air. By the time we opened for families at 1pm, it was noticeably warmer. The morning was a nice stream of people dropping off groceries, pantry, and hygiene items. It is a common comment from morning volunteers that shoppers seem very happy. Love that! Thank you everyone! Families lined up the full length at 1pm but the line was gone by 1:30pm, which was odd. It stayed calm for the next hour with family coming in slowly. By 2:30pm the pace quickened and was very busy for the last 30 minutes of the day. In the end, it was a fairly normal Thursday.

Groceries today came from Rotary Bellevue Sunrise, Champions Foundation, and the Jubilee Friends group, as well as Doxa, First United Methodist, Overlake Park Presbyterian, Sacred Heart Parish & School, Highland Covenant, Lighthouse, Crossroads Bible, and Bellevue Presbyterian churches. A total of 196 orders came in today and all went out to families today, along with a few more carried over from yesterday. Thank you to everyone who donated today!

Food boxes arrived at about 8:45am, which was perfect for the outside temperature to drop. The AM crew came from Young Life, which has been bringing groceries off and on. This team did an awesome job juggling many tasks all morning, including portioning all the dog food, cat food, and cat litter in the building. We ran out of dog food yesterday and a kind donor (one of you) hear of this and brought many bags this morning to restock the inventroy. We didn’t run out today. Thank you, crew!

Thank you to those of you who saw the first note about mandarin oranges yesterday and brought some today. We had about 50 bags and passed each out to a family in the middle of the afternoon. No-one turned us down – they are very popular. We hope this is a fun addition for shoppers and families alike.

Eastside Baby Corner made a wonderful donation today of diapers, feminine hygiene, lotion, and more. Thank you, EBC and Ashley for transporting.

Our West Seattle partner, El Dios Viviente Methodist Church, came today at 4pm to pick up any remaining food from the week.

We have been in deep partnership with Pastor Guzman since the spring, as he supports about 400 families in the White Center neighborhood. Their van was full today. Please pray for their ministry and all the families they are helping.

A few stories:

Leah and her mom, Pan attended Sacred Heart Parish and Leah is in 6th grade at Sacred Heart School. For the last few months, Leah has been raising money through PayPal from people in their school and church who cannot shop for groceries themselves. Leah takes the donations and purchases 20 full orders each week, delivering them for Thursday families. Wow! Thank you, Leah. If anyone at Sacred Heart would like to utilize Leah, reach out to her through the school.

Barb, the Jubilee REACH Hospitality Manager. She staffs the station offered to families daily which provides cooking oil and dish soap if they bring their own containers. A volunteer, Sheri, staffs it on Wednesday, too. These ladies do a great job of chatting with families and using the time to add joy to the day for each person. Thank you, Barb and Sheri. Thank you to all of you who donate the cooking oil and dish soap. This is how it goes out.

Charles, a Jubilee REACH Site Coach at Highland Middle School. On Thursdays, he works the afternoon shift, taking a break from his normal responsibilities. He’s been working with ‘Groceries for Families’ since the spring. All of the site coaches rotate through shifts in GFF weekly. If you are connected to Highland, you definitely know ‘Coach Charles’.

Thanks for another great week. It’s hard to believe we can see the one-year anniversary approaching in late March. If you have any ideas of how we could mark the date, please reply back. The word ‘party’ seems to come up frequently.

Thank you for the continued support and dedication to this program and the families. It is a wonder to watch happen each day. Keep praying for the families. It is encouraging to see restrictions on restaurants in King County start to lessen. Hopefully, people can slowly get back to work.

Have a great evening, wherever this email finds you,

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

Groceries for Families: Week 44 - Day 2

Groceries for Families: Week 45 - Day 1

Groceries for Families: Week 44 - Day 2