March 23, 2021

Today marks one year from the beginning of ‘Groceries for Families’ on Monday, March 23, 2020. It’s hard to imagine. More comments are below. For today, the operation was quite normal. The weather cooperated nicely, with cool temps in the morning and pleasant in the afternoon. The sun was out at times, with no wind. No complaints at all. The morning was very busy with happy people dropping off groceries, pantry, and hygiene items. Thank you, everyone! Families lined up early and kept a slow but steady pace most of the afternoon. It felt a little slow, but in the end, a lot of food & pantry items went out. It is a very nice start to the week.

Groceries today were provided by Bellevue Kiwanis and the Jubilee Friends group, as well as Creekside Covenant, St. Madeleine Sophie, East Shore Unitarian, Cornerstone Fellowship, Bellevue Presbyterian, Bellevue Christian Reformed, Crossroads Bible, Covenant Presbyterian, Westminster Chapel, and Awakening churches. A total of 208 orders came in and all went out to families today, along with about 12 carried over from last week. Thank you to everyone who donated!

Food boxes showed up a little differently today, which required some quick changes. The boxes were packed by Cascadia Produce instead of Medosweet Farms. The boxes themselves were a different shape and had an open hole on top. They stacked 40 on a pallet instead of 48, which meant we received 6 pallets instead of 5. The cooked chicken wasn’t frozen, which we actually rely on to help keep things cold. We made it all work, but any changes like that require extra problem solving for sure.

The morning volunteers were from Cornerstone Fellowship Church. This group worked hard all morning, including all the adjustments with the food boxes. They processed all the incoming groceries and packed 100 boxes of food. Thank you, crew!

Senior lunches were delivered to 32 people in the community today by Barb, Theresa, and Liz. Thank you, ladies! Included with the taco salad lunch were personalized notes, written to each senior by the Women’s Ministry at Crossroads Bible Church. The goal is to have one personalized card included in each lunch, each week. Thank you, CBC!

A large donation of different dog and cat foods came from Target Factoria on Friday, delivered by a volunteer. It appears they were clearinghouse, and we all benefited. The inventory is well stocked for the next few weeks, at least. Thank you, Jerry! He also brought many, many dozens of eggs, which all went out to families today. What a haul!

Volunteers began this week by bringing food from numerous grocery stores: Safeway Thrasher’s Corner (thank you, Dale & Kathy!), QFC Crossroads (thank you, Mike, Gil & Kyle!), Whole Foods Bellevue (thank you, Fred!), Trader Joe’s Overlake (thank you, Fred!), Amazon Go Overlake (thank you, Rick!) and a local distributor (thank you, Mike & Gil!). This food fills the market daily.

Guild Mortgage in Bellevue is a long-time partner of Jubilee REACH and did a drive of pantry items last week. It was very successful and brought to Jubilee in a large pickup truckload. Thank you, Guild Mortgage! And thank you Sam and Denisse for delivering.

Coach Dycen (see picture to left) worked his first grocery shift today as a new member of the Jubilee family. He is a site coach at Tyee Middle School, having just moved here from Sacramento. He fit right in today and was put on ‘cart duty’ as his first assignment. Welcome, Dycen!

A few reflections on the one year mark of GFF:

It feels best to not define this as a celebration or anything more than a commemoration. It feels better to just be quiet a bit. One year means a full year of difficulties for these families.

Yet, it is incredible to acknowledge the effort put out by so many people (all of you!) to sustain this program for so long. Your hearts are clearly connected to it. Thank you!

Day 1 started with 20 families expected and 19 of them came. The operation was so basic and yet so difficult. Now we can serve 240 families with no trouble.

Week 1 had 60 families registered to come twice during the week. (now they all come once weekly) Week 2 went to 205 families which was a huge leap of faith at the time. Week 3 had 285 families and week 4 had 330.

The initial commitment of GFF was 8 weeks (the pandemic will be over by then). It was then extended to 12 weeks (early June). It was then extended through the summer. We peaked at 682 families at the end of June and actually came down to about 400 by the end of July. But it crept back up steadily in August. It was then extended to January 31 and now June 30. Wow.

There are currently 24 churches, 4 clubs, and the Jubilee Friends group actively participating weekly.

Thank you for all you continue to do to support this program and these families. We don’t know much about most of their lives, only the time they are here each week. Yet, we do know that by lessing food insecurity and providing many of the basics of living, we can all help them deal with the rest that life throws at them. With that, we also send love, hope, peace, and the full knowledge that someone cares about them. Hopefully, this makes them feel an important part of this community, that they matter within this community and they belong in this community. They are; they do; they do

Blessings to you all,

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

Groceries for Families: Week 52 - Day 1

Groceries for Families: Week 52 - Day 2

Groceries for Families: Week 51 - Day 2