Groceries for Families: Week 63 - Day 2
June 9, 2021
Kiddingly, some of you report back you wouldn’t know the daily weather if not for these emails. Well, you’re welcome. 😊 Today was simply lovely – the kind of day where you almost don’t even notice the weather much because it was so nice. It makes for a wonderful GFF operation. The morning was a typically busy Wednesday, with many happy people delivering donations of groceries, pantry, and hygiene items. Thank you, everyone! The afternoon was also a typically busy Wednesday, with families lining up across the lawn to open and keeping up a very steady pace all afternoon. It was a smooth day.
Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Delivery
Newport Covenant Delivery
Groceries today were provided by St. Louise Parish, 24-Seven, Bellevue Christian Reformed, Calvary Chapel Eastside, Indian Fellowship, Newport Covenant, Crossroads Bible, and Bellevue Presbyterian churches, as well as the Bellevue Rotary Club, the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club, and the Jubilee Friends group. A total of 191 orders were brought today and all went out to families, along with 19 carried over from yesterday. Thank you to everyone who donated.
Today’s AM Crew
The AM crew came from Bellevue Presbyterian Church today, mostly a returning group of veteran volunteers to the shift. They did great receiving all the deliveries and getting the operation ready to open for the afternoon. Thank you, crew!
Master Gardeners Delivery
Fresh produce from local gardens has started to show up at Jubilee.
Radishes from the Creekside Covenant garden came yesterday. Today a delivery of unique spinach came from the King County Master Gardeners. Thank you!
If anyone has connections to a local garden, feel free to send them to Jubilee if they need a way to get produce to families in need. What fun!
Costco Rick
A picture of the Costco driver, Rick (left) who brings eggs to Jubilee 2-3 times each week. He’s a nice man who takes good care of our order and delivers with a smile. After he departs Lynnwood, we are usually his first stop around 7:30am.
We told him this morning that on the map of how ‘Groceries for Families’ works, there is a place on it for him. He is important and matters to the overall operation. Put in those terms, it caught him off guard and brought out some emotion from him. He thanked us for the opportunity for him to contribute. It was a nice exchange.
A few stories and updates:
Georgina brought her sweet six-year-old Alexa today to greet the crew just before we opened at 1pm. They’ve been profiled in this email before. Alexa brought four pictures she and her sister had drawn for us. She got a nice hug for that. Then, they presented us with two boxes of beautifully decorated chocolate-covered strawberries. Georgina is quite talented. It is quite special to be loved by such families through gifts of food.
Maria brought the crew beef soup and Mexican rice today. It will be tomorrow’s lunch. Her knee is healing from surgery last month, but the physical therapy is quite difficult.
A note from a family, as summarized by Daniel or Trenton: “Your program has helped me a lot because since I haven't had a lot of work, I've been able to save some money. This food and supplies to clean and other essentials like toilet paper or paper towels have been a blessing. Since I've lived in the US, I hadn't received any other help, which is the first time. Everything you give me really impacts my life. Thank you.”
A note from a family, as summarized by Daniel or Trenton: “It's been a huge help to our family to come to Jubilee because every week we get food and cleaning stuff, all especially since my husband is not working. He works side jobs but they're not consistent so it's hard to know if we'll have enough to make it through the week. But we know there will be food, for sure. Everything you give is great. Thank you for continuing, as long as you can.”
Today’s PM Crew
As mentioned here yesterday, the conversations with families who think they will need help after July 1, finished on Monday. We are reading through the 155 responses and notes to understand the need better. From that information, the framework of Phase 3 is becoming more clear. Details will be sent out to all partner organizations later this week for their own review and discernment. Stay tuned. The transition feels to be on schedule and going well. Thank you for your continued prayers.
Thanks for a very nice Wednesday. The operation is very calm and smoothly humming along. There is a very nice community that has formed at Jubilee on each of the three days. You can see the exchange between some of the families, as well as with the staff. We call certainly feel it and can see it right in front of us. Equally, there is a community each morning with all of the donors dropping off donations. We are all doing life together.
Blessings to you all,
Ken Carpenter
Director- Community Care, Jubilee REACH
On behalf of the Jubilee family
