Groceries for Families: Week 52 - Day 2
March 24, 2021
After a lovely day of weather to mark 1 year yesterday, +1 brought a flash of winter still. The morning was a quite bitter cold, with a biting wind that just wouldn’t stop. By the afternoon the wind lessened and the temperature climbed just enough to take the edge off. The rain held off by 4pm it was coming down hard and is still giving the gutter system a test right now. Wednesdays are a super busy day for incoming groceries, pantry & hygiene items. Today was very typical, with lots of happy people coming all morning. Thank you to everyone! Families lined up early and kept a line all afternoon. Lots of people came today. We nearly went through all 240 food boxes, which always marks a busy day. Overall the operation ran smoothly and lots of food & pantry items went out.
Bellevue Presbyterian Delivery
Bellevue Rotary Delivery
Groceries today were provided by the Rotary Club of Bellevue, the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club and the Jubilee Friends group, as well as Newport Covenant, 24-Seven, Calvary Chapel Eastside, Bellevue Christian Reformed, St. Louise, Indian Fellowship, Crossroads Bible and Bellevue Presbyterian churches. A total of 276 orders came in today (thank you for the extras!) and all but 34 went out today to families. The remainder will go out first thing tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who donated today.
Today’s AM Crew
After a different type of food box delivery yesterday, which threw us a little bit operationally, the normal boxes returned today. The change had to do with the distributor working to help a food bank in Renton with some special circumstances. We’re happy to roll with whatever comes our way, but with a complicated operation, unexpected changes have an effect.
The AM volunteers today were from Bellevue Presbyterian Church, with a couple of ringers thrown in to help. We needed every person today, as the morning was super busy with all sorts of things going on. The group worked very hard and kept ahead all morning long. Thank you, crew!
Extra Bananas
Delivery by a volunteer from Amazon Go Overlake yielded 22 boxes of bananas this morning. Volunteers quickly opened them all and got them into the operation. These were perfectly ripe, so we substituted them for the ones purchased today and will do so again tomorrow. The purchased bananas are green, so will hold until next week. We won’t buy bananas Tuesday or Wednesday, saving about $300. Thank you, Rick!
Seattle T2P2 Delivery
Seattle T2PT returned today with another great donation of feminine hygiene packs. All of them went out to women today. Thank you, Amanda!
Yakult returned with another donation of their probiotic drinks. These are very popular and a real treat in the market. Thank you, Diane!
Holding Spots in Line
A picture of cones with bags around them is to the left. Cones are how we keep families socially distant while lining up. One cone goes out about 10:15am, families are allowed to put a bag down to hold their place in line. Each bag represents one family. By the time we opened at 1pm, every cone in this picture had a person standing next to it.
A few updates and stories:
Rose was here today. She was very excited to share that Home Depot has given her two extra shifts this week, so she’ll have five in total. Her first full paycheck is this Friday, which she is greatly anticipating. She loves her job and feels very much at home there. She’s caring for her four young children after the death of her husband one year ago. She is working for the first time. Please continue to pray for her.
Maria brought a lunch of beef soup today. We gave her the extra beef last week. She continues to express love and gratitude through her cooking. She shared today her knee is having troubles. Maria is older and uses a walker for stability. She has three options for her knee: 1) do nothing, 2) have a scope go in to see the damage, 3) have surgery. She prays every day for healing. She will do the scope soon, which will reveal whether surgery is needed. Please join her in prayer.
Maria has a woman who looks after her because of her health. This lady, whose name we don’t recall, came to Denisse today to ask for prayer. Her son called today saying he is suicidal. She is very worried and trying to help him. Please pray for them.
Kim is a family we haven’t profiled in a while. She’s been with us since the spring and has three teenage boys. She’s very talkative and quite fun, so we all know her. She works at a local Starbucks and gets about 25 hours per week, so far. She had been missing for a few weeks, which is very noticeable. She came today, so we quickly welcomed her back. She broke into tears, as she shared her mother died suddenly in Arizona. Her mother was 70 and her best friend. Her mom had stomach cancer, which she hid from her two daughters, so her death was a shock. She flew right there, along with her sister from California, only to find her mother’s sisters has raided her mother’s home, taking items and cash from a safe. Her aunts are poor and desperate, so seemed to have no trouble taking things. Kim is overwhelmed with grief and now anger. The situation is a mess. She is home now and trying to come to grips with the loss of her mother. Please pray for her.
Marcia returned yesterday, after being gone a few weeks. We knew she had some sort of emergency surgery, which seems to have been in her abdomen. She is recovering and now dealing with Overlake to get some financial relief for the medical bill. Please pray for her. She is carrying many burdens, which have been shared here recently.
Today’s PM Crew
Thanks for another great day in ‘Groceries for Families’. It is very exciting to think about the Easter bags being handed out next week. Thank you for this extra effort to make that holiday special.
Have a great evening, wherever this email finds you.
Ken Carpenter
Director- Community Care, Jubilee REACH
On behalf of the Jubilee family
