Groceries for Families: Week 49 - Day 1
After yesterday’s spring-like day, we thought week 49 of ‘Groceries for Families’ would start with a similar feel. Instead, rain greeted the operation as it opened early this morning and persisted much of the morning. The temperature was cold and felt colder with the damp. Fortunately, by the afternoon the chill wore off and gave way to a dry rest of the day. Despite the morning, the flow of happy people bringing groceries, pantry, and hygiene items were steady. Thank you, everyone! Families lined up all the way across the lawn to start and kept a good pace up all afternoon. Lots of families continue to help each other by picking up groceries for each other. It feels like fewer people coming, but by the end of the day the same amount of food goes out as normal. Great day!
Covenant Presbyterian Delivery
Bellevue Kiwanis Delivery
Groceries today were provided by Bellevue Christian Reformed, Bellevue Presbyterian, Cornerstone Fellowship, Westminster Chapel, East Shore Unitarian, Covenant Presbyterian, Creekside Covenant, Crossroads Bible, and Awakening churches, as well as Bellevue Kiwanis Club and the Jubilee Friends group. A total of 212 orders came in today and all went out to families, along with 12 orders carried over from last week. Thank you to everyone who donated today.
Today’s AM Crew
As with the start of each week, a number of volunteers give their time and energy to bring food from local stores. These items primarily keep the market stocked with a variety of wonderful items. Volunteers brought food from the Safeway Thrasher’s Corner. Volunteers brought food from QFC Crossroads twice and a Distributor in N. Seattle. Volunteers brought food from Whole Foods Bellevue and Trader Joes Overlake. Their efforts add so much to this program, giving families the ability to choose things in the market each day. Thank you to all of you quiet angels out there!
Packing Food Boxes
The AM volunteers were not from one group but a nice mix of regular volunteers. This group of 9 anchored a very busy day, receiving and processing all the groceries. They also packed 120 food boxes. Thank you, crew!
Senior Lunches
Senior lunches were delivered to 32 senior citizens in the community today by Barb and her crew. A very tasty lunch of Shepard’s Pie and many extras were bundled up in a lovely bag for each person. Thank you, Barb, Gina, and Theresa.
A fun donation was brought yesterday by Seattle Gourmet Foods: pomegranate truffles, oreo-style cookies in a candy cane and salted caramel flavors, and fresh honey. Wow! We added one tray of cookies to each food box today, so families found a nice surprise when they reached home. Things like this simply add a bit of fun and variety. Thank you, Mike and Bret.
The diaper inventory in beginning to get low. Thank you to so many of you who continue to provide these important items. Each box makes a big difference. Today, with the help of a partner organization, we placed a large diaper order through a wholesaler for sizes Newborn through #4. They will arrive at the end of March. We last did this in early November. Unfortunately, the two most popular sizes, #5 & #6, are not available nationally through the wholesale network. To shore up the #5 & #6 inventories, we will be making a periodic large purchases through Costco starting now and over the next few months. Funding for all of these purchases was generously provided by partner churches, organizations, and individuals. Thank you, everyone!
A few updates and stories:
Many of you have been following the story of Shahin, whose husband has been battling a recurrance of brain cancer since early June. With a sad heart, we need to share he passed away this past Saturday morning at Overlake. Kharazm was 45 years old and leaves behind his wife and high school age daughter. Shahin was texting on Saturday and was in deep grief, being all alone as she walked through the last days. All she could do was wait. Back home on Sunday, they made a lovely memorial for him with a large picture, flowers and candles. Perhaps she will allow the photo she texted to be shared here one day.
Our walk with this family started on June 6, 2020 with a first story in this same space in this email. You can find it here: https://www.jubileereach.org/blog/2020/6/6/groceries-for-families-week-11-day-6. It continued on June 24, 2020: https://www.jubileereach.org/blog/2020/6/24/groceries-for-families-week-14-day-3. There have been many posts since then. Many of you have prayed for them. She shared a few weeks ago how she loves coming to Jubilee because she knows there are people there who care that her husband is dying.
If you’d like to bring a card for the family, please drop it by Jubilee. She normally comes on Wednesday’s, but may not come tomorrow. A volunteer has been delivering groceries the past few weeks. She knows many people have been praying for them, so cards would be a tangible way to show her we are all with them. Please continue to pray for them. Life remains hard and complicated.
Maria brought spaghetti for the crew’s lunch today. Yum! In return, we were able to give her a lovely cake for her grandson’s birthday.
Liliana came at 3:30pm to pick up two boxes of prepackaged sandwiches. She and her son took them to the Seattle waterfront and Pioneer Square to hand them out to homeless people. She sent many pictures back. She is an angel to these people and does it with such a loving heart. She and her son simply want to help others.
We begin week 49 with 740 families in ‘Groceries for Families’ (3,330 people) and 7 on the waiting list. This is down from 761 last week, as we are getting a bit more proactive in removing families who are not coming regularly and not communicating with us. If those families return, they would reenter on the waiting list. The daily breakdown is 239 Tuesday, 239 Wednesday and 262 Thursday. When the waiting list was emptied a few weeks ago, most of those families were added to Thursday, which is why it is higher. This allows excess food from Tuesday and Wednesday to be carried over to Thursday. It is working very well.
Today’s PM Crew
Thanks for another great day in ‘Groceries for Families’. We can see the 1-year mark just over the horizon on March 23. Thank you for all you’re doing to support these sweet families. It is working. Hopefully, your participation is also changing your own life in some way.
Blessings to you all
Ken Carpenter
Director- Community Care, Jubilee REACH
On behalf of the Jubilee family
