GROCERIES FOR FAMILIES

Supporting families affected by the pandemic with food, hygiene items, and other necessities

Jubilee REACH Communications 1/6/21 Jubilee REACH Communications 1/6/21

Groceries for Families: Week 41 - Day 2

Finally a dry day! How nice it was to not think about rain and keeping things & people dry. Even the temperature was tolerable. Maybe the sun will come out tomorrow. The operation was wonderful today, with lots of activity all day. The morning was very busy with incoming groceries & pantry items delivered by happy people. The morning volunteers commented on how joyful people are as they drop things off. Thank you!!! The afternoon had a long line of families at 1:00pm, which stayed busy up until 3:15pm. All was very smooth.

Groceries were provided today by Newport Covenant, Calvary Chapel Eastside, Bellevue Presbyterian, 24-Seven, Bellevue Christian Reformed, Crossroads Bible, Indian Fellowship and St. Louise churches, as well as the Jubilee Friends group, Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club, and the Rotary Club of Bellevue. A total of 259 orders were delivered, above the expected number of 237. Thank you for the extras! All but 30 went out to families today. The rest will carry over to tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who donated today.

Lots of milk came in this morning with the groceries. Thank you!!! With the three reach-in refrigerators, it all was kept cold until the afternoon. Most of it went out today to families, and the rest will carry over to tomorrow. As you read yesterday, we will need to rely upon such milk donations each week until the USDA boxes begin again in early February. Right now, QFC has half gallons on sale for $.99. Whole milk and 2% are preferred. Thank you for this extra help.

The AM volunteers came from Bellevue Presbyterian and Crossroads Bible churches. They were kept very busy with incoming groceries and packing food boxes. Thank you, crew!

Like yesterday, fresh food was purchased this morning for families: eggs, bananas, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, green pepper, and carrots.

Families were given the choice of frozen beef, chicken, or pork, which has been kept from QFC donation over the last few months. This new process is working very well.

You likely see QFC carts in some of the daily pictures. We’ve borrowed (with permission) about 12 carts from the nearby QFC store. Each family uses a cart to take their initial food to their vehicles. The picture to the right shows Sterling with the carts at opening time, all lined up and stocked with food. These carts have become essential to keeping the operation flowing smoothly.

A few emails from families:

I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude for doing the groceries for everyone who needs it. I and my family appreciate everything you do to make this program possible. Again, thank you to everyone involved. Virtual hugs to all of you. I just can’t thank you enough.
Once more I want to use this communication way to express our feelings of gratitude for the incredible help that my family and myself have received from you during several months of the hardest year of our lives. These generous actions will be unforgettable for all of us. Fortunately this new year has brought a relief to our financial situation that will allow us to continue without your extraordinary and kind help and we want let that someone else can obtain what we have been receiving so far. We wish you the best for this new year and send big hugs. The Lord will bless you.

(This last note is encouraging, as it is a family becoming self-supporting once again, removing themselves from the program. We hope to see more of this in the first half of 2021, as work returns, primarily to the restaurant, hotel, construction and gig industries.)

A man named Jose use to come early on Wednesday mornings to get food, because he worked at a local restaurant during the day. Today, he came in the afternoon. With the restaurant closed now, he has no more work. Life just got harder. He is hopeful they will reopen and rehire him in the next month or two. For now, he is trying to find any work to sustain his family. He is a very nice man, who only wants to care for his wife and kids. This is the reality most families are facing. Please pray for Jose.

Thank you for another great day in ‘Groceries for Families’. Have a great evening, wherever this email finds you.

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

Jubilee REACH Communications 1/5/21 Jubilee REACH Communications 1/5/21

Groceries for Families: Week 41 - Day 1

The first day of week 19 of Version 2 of ‘Groceries for Families’ (week 41 since the very beginning in March) started off with a great day. The weather this morning was dry and a mild temperature. The rain started at about 11:30am and persisted most of the afternoon. With the rain came the feeling of colder temperatures, so the late afternoon felt cold. Donations streamed in all morning with groceries and pantry items coming from very happy people. It’s fun to see friends meet each other in the Jubilee parking lot and spend a long time catching up. Families lined up all the way across the line at opening time. There was a short lull about 2:15pm, but the line soon returned and kept coming until about 3:30pm. The operation ran very smoothly, which is always nice on a busy day.

Groceries today were provided by Evangelical Chinese, Covenant Presbyterian, Westminster Chapel, Creekside Covenant, Bellevue Presbyterian, Crossroads Bible, Bellevue Christian Reformed, Cornerstone Fellowship and East Shore Unitarian churches, as well as the Jubilee Friends group. A total of 216 orders were delivered today, well above the expected 177 orders. Thank you for the extras! It’s a good thing too, as all of the 216 but two went out to families today. It was busy! Thank you to everyone who donated today.

With no USDA food boxes and no King County produce available, we started a new operation today. Fresh eggs were purchased from Costco, with a large delivery coming early this morning for all three days. Fresh produce will be purchased daily from Smart Food Service (bananas, tomatoes, lettuce, green pepper, cucumber, carrots, onions). Milk was brought by donors last Wednesday, yesterday, and today. Thank you! Meat has been held in the Jubilee freezers, anticipating this day. Volunteers and crew packed plastic grocery bags with all the produce and eggs. Families were given the choice of beef, pork, or chicken. (so great to give them a choice) Each family was offered 1 gallon of milk. The whole operation worked very well. We even saved potatoes from last week’s food boxes, so they were available in the market. Day 1 was a total success!

Volunteers brought food from the Safeway Thrasher’s Corner in Bothell. Volunteers brought food from QFC Crossroads. We also received food from 3 food banks, which had extra food, including the Stanwood food bank. The market was plenty full with a wide variety, including an assortment of non-perishable goods. Thank you, everyone!

You may recall the great story of one Jubilee reach-in refrigerator being replaced by donors in November. Well, the 2nd reach-in refrigerator died in early December. One of the involved churches stepped in to purchase the replacement. We thought it would be delivered last Thursday. Then we thought it would come yesterday. It finally arrived at 8:15am this morning. By 10:00am, it was full of milk. Along with the borrowed reach-in from the Bellevue School District, we now have 3 smooth running machines. The timing could not have been better with all the milk coming. Thank you, ECC!

A king cake was brought by Maria and Hilda today. If you don’t know what a king cake is, look it up. These two friends are a cherished part of the GFF. We adore them and appreciate the love they return through cooking. Additionally, Maria brought lunch for the crew, a tasty pasta dish. We will enjoy it tomorrow. She is a great cook and usually uses ingredients she gets from Jubilee.

There is already an update on the USDA Farmers to Families program:

Round 5 was approved today and will have $1.5 billion invested, which is triple round 4. You can read about it in today’s Seattle Times. Vendors are now bidding for the contracts, with the closing being January 19. After contracts are awarded, it will take 2-3 weeks for supply chains to fill. The winner of round 4 in King County, Cascadia Produce, has already submitted their bid. We have already submitted a request to them for 250 food boxes each Tue, Wed, and Thu morning. It would be ideal if Cascadia won it again, as we already have a relationship with them. If they do not, we will quickly reach out to the winner to get in their system.

This means we will be without food boxes at least until February 2 and perhaps February 9. We will be using funds to purchase fresh produce and eggs, as well as stored frozen meat. We will be relying upon donors, like you, to please bring milk each week. Thank you for the extra help during this coming month.

We begin this week with 706 families in the ‘Groceries for Families’ program. This is down from 712 last week, with 6 families being removed. Another 49 families are on the waiting list, including 5 more added today. We are discussing the possibility of bringing families from the waiting list into the program beginning next Tuesday.

Thank you for your continued dedication to this program. The need continues in our community. Together, we are supporting around 3,500 people who need it most during this tough time. It is often said there is a level playing field for everyone because of the virus. This is not true. For most of us, the virus has been an inconvenience…at most. For these families, their lives have been shattered in many ways. Jobs have been lost. Money is gone. Anxiety and fear are constant. The future is unknown. Food is scarce. The playing field is not level. People have been impacted very differently. Thank you for loving these people by providing them with food, hygiene items, pantry items, care, prayer, and more. While they may not know you, they are very aware someone is helping them, and it matters. It is working! Keep going.

Happy New Year!

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

Jubilee REACH Communications 1/5/21 Jubilee REACH Communications 1/5/21

Groceries for Families: Week 40 - Day 3

The holiday week comes to a close on a very good note. The rain returned today but was very tolerable, especially with little wind. The temperature was in the 40’s, so much better than the past two days. Deliveries of groceries and pantry items came in all morning from very happy people. For being a holiday week, there has been no drop off in donations. Thank you!! Families came all afternoon, with only a slight lull in the middle. The last 30 minutes was very busy. Although some families were gone this week with the holidays, the overall attendance was very strong.

December 30, 2020

Groceries today came from 24-Seven, St. Louise, Indian Fellowship, Crossroads Bible, Bellevue Christian Reformed, Bellevue Presbyterian, Newport Covenant, Victory Court and Calvary Chapel Eastside churches, as well as Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club, Rotary Club of Bellevue and the Jubilee Friends group. A total of 236 orders came in today and all went out to families today. Thank you to everyone who donated.

The last delivery of food boxes arrived very early today. These have come from Cascadia Produce and Medosweet Farms. It would be great if they would also receive the next USDA contract, if it is issued. We will see what happens in the coming weeks. More information will be coming.

The morning volunteers came from Bellevue Presbyterian Church. Joining them was Father John Madigan from Sacred Heart Parish. There is a great picture of Father John with some aptly branded potatoes. They all worked very hard with the inflow of groceries, pantry items, and packing food boxes. Thank you crew!

Volunteers brought food from QFC Crossroads today. Other volunteers brought food from the Lake Samm Foursquare Food Bank. The market was nice and full with a good variety today. Thank you!

A crew of 10 volunteers worked from 3:30-5:00pm to close the operation for the long weekend and get it ready for Monday. The place looks great – nice and organized. Thank you, crew!

A special picture was drawn for us today, delivered by Alexa and her mom. We will hang this on the ‘wall of fame’ in the main lobby. She is a true sweetie!

Some reflections as 2020 comes to an end:

‘Groceries for Families’ started on March 23 with 20 families coming that first day and 60 in the program. The committed length of time was eight weeks. (The pandemic will be done by then…we can all do anything for eight weeks. Ha!) Then it went to 12 weeks. Then it went for the summer, with an exit plan in place. Numbers did actually trend downward in mid-July, but by late July/early August they were going back up. Then it extended into the fall & winter to at least the end of January. As we stand now, it has been just over 9 months. Wow.

It really feels like more than just a program at this point. Truly, we are all doing life together: Jubilee, donors, families, community, all of us. If you ever go on a mission trip, you learn it is much more than just building something or doing a specific project. It is about doing life together with a group of people you otherwise wouldn’t know. You invest your time and money to show that you care enough to come there in person to share a bit of life. That matters. That’s what this feels like now.

We’ve watched life happen. Women who were pregnant in the spring, now have babies. One woman told us yesterday her baby is celebrating 6 months today. We remember when she was pregnant, and then disappeared for a month in late June/July to have the baby. Wow!

We’ve listened to families who share when someone in their family dies. Some are local. Many are in other countries, impossible to visit. We’ve watched them grieve. It hurts.

We’ve gotten to know people donating each week and also followed along in their lives. Some have left for a month or more, and then returned. We celebrate that! Many have opened their heart to what this program has meant to them. What a gift to hear such stories.

Lives are crossing, which otherwise would never intersect. Such a blessing.

We don’t know what the future holds. We all hope 2021 is a better year. The GFF continues and is supported by so many passionate people. You! Thank you. We never could have envisioned this back in March. The number of pivots made is countless. We will continue to pay attention to where we are called, which doors open, which doors close, and will step.

It continues to feel like this is exactly where we all should be in a time like this.

Jubilee REACH will be closed until Monday. There are some bins of ice at the back doors if anyone needs to drop off milk. We’ll swing by each day to check and bring them into the refrigerator. If you can wait, next week is also fine.

Thank you for a great week and a great nine months.

Happy New Year!

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

Jubilee REACH Communications 1/5/21 Jubilee REACH Communications 1/5/21

Groceries for Families: Week 40 - Day 2

The temperature this morning at 7am was cold – scrape your car windows cold. All morning, the temperature actually seemed to get colder. It wasn’t until the afternoon that the chill in the air finally wore off. By 5pm it was actually raining, so clouds have come in. Despite the cold, the beautiful sun and lack of wind made it very tolerable. The morning had lots and lots of happy people dropping off groceries and pantry items. Thank you!!! The afternoon started with a long line of families, which is common for Tuesday. By 2pm, the line had disappeared and things were quiet for about 15 minutes. The pace picked up again and by 2:40pm, the line was back and the last half an hour was the busiest of the day. In the end, we gave out 235 food boxes, which included 43 carried over from yesterday. Busy!

December 29, 2020

It is clear families have partnered up in this holiday season and with the more extreme weather. Many people are picking up for 2, 3 or 4 families. This is great to see. The community is very strong for some people.

Groceries today came from Evangelical Chinese, Covenant Presbyterian, Awakening, Westminster Chapel, Creekside Covenant, Cornerstone Fellowship, Crossroads Bible, East Shore Unitarian Bellevue Presbyterian and Bellevue Christian Reformed churches, as well as the Jubilee Friends group. A total of 201 orders came in today and all went out to families today, along with another 33 carried over from yesterday. Thank you to everyone who donated today.

The AM volunteers came from Crossroads Bible Church. This group of adults and kids worked hard, plus they braved the frigid temperature all morning. Food boxes came about 9:00am, and they were packing them by 10:45am. Thank you, crew!

The straw which covers the areas families stand in has been taking a beating with the rain. Even under the canopies, it gets wet. Two new bales were delivered yesterday, and volunteers spread out a nice new layer. It looks great and was wonderful to have today for families. Thank you, Libbey and Chris!

As often happens on Tuesday’s, Maria brought the crew lunch. Today it was a lovely plate of homemade enchiladas. We’ll enjoy them tomorrow. The attached pictures shows her in her movie star glasses. She continues to love through her cooking.

Update for January:

As written in yesterday’s summary, the USDA food boxes will end tomorrow. The renewal of the program is unknown. For sure, there will be a delay of at least 3 weeks. This means the loss of the boxes which supply milk, meat, dairy (cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, yogurt), potatoes, onions.

Beginning next week, we will replace this by purchasing fresh produce and eggs with funds previously donated toward the grocery program. Thank you! This will include lettuce, tomatoes, green pepper, onion, bananas, cucumber, carrots, and eggs. Volunteers will pack these items into grocery bags (paper or plastic) for families. A count of 200-225 will be needed each Tue, Wed, and Thu.

We have some remaining dairy from recent food boxes, which we’ve stored in refrigeration. One will be added to each bag until it runs out, which will be in the first week, for sure.
For protein, we have been storing up donated meat from QFC in the freezer for weeks. There is enough to last at least two weeks. It is an assortment of chicken, pork, and beef. We will add one package to each bag. We’ll be working on the next plan for protein.

We’d like to ask for your help in the following ways:

Milk: Would you kindly bring milk to offer each family 1 gallon weekly? Preferred are 2% and whole milk. It can be gallons or half gallons, and need not be an expensive brand or type. We have 3 large refrigerators to store it and will work to keep them available for milk. It can be brought with your normal grocery orders or really any morning, including Monday and Friday. (As if on cue, QFC will have half gallons on sale for $.99 beginning tomorrow, through next Tuesday, with a minimum purchase.)
Bags: Please bring paper and plastic grocery bags to Jubilee, as we’ll need to replace the boxes as the carrying item.

The plan is to keep this new operation in place until either the USDA boxes return or a new plan is uncovered. Thank you in advance for the additional support.

The rest of the operation will stay the same, including the non-perishable groceries and pantry items offered to families daily. Thank you!

Further information about the ‘Groceries for Families’ program in February & beyond will be coming out next week. Many of you have been asking, which is very appreciated. Thank you for your care and interest.

Today was a great day. A lot of food and pantry items went home with people today. It felt good to wish people a ‘Happy New Year’, knowing how rough 2020 has been. A fresh year may bring hope to many. Thank you for being such an important part of the program which has stepped in to fill the gap for about 3,500 people in this community.

Happy New Year!!!

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

Jubilee REACH Communications 1/5/21 Jubilee REACH Communications 1/5/21

Groceries for Families: Week 40 - Day 1

Remember last Monday: wet, cold, snow…today was MUCH better. The sun was out with a blue sky. The temperature was cold but tolerable. Hooray! Even the families commented about how better it was. Like last week, the entire Thursday operation shifted to Monday. Thank you to everyone who made that change one last time. The morning was busy with people dropping off groceries and pantry items, along with delivery trucks of all sorts. Families lined up right on time, with most waiting in their cars because of the cold. The pace was somewhat slow much of the afternoon, likely due to the holiday season, which has impacted attendance, for sure. It was another lovely day here.

December 28, 2020

Groceries today were provided by Bellevue Presbyterian, Lighthouse, Crossroads Bible, Highland Covenant, Sacred Heart Parish and School, Overlake Park Presbyterian, First United Methodist and Doxa churches, as well as Champions Foundation and the Jubilee Friends group. A total of 192 orders came in and all but 40 went out today, including 6 by delivery. The rest will carry over to tomorrow, which is typically a busy day. Thank you to everyone who donated today.

Because of the shift to Monday, food boxes couldn’t be delivered. So, Randy took the Jubilee box truck to downtown Kent early this morning to pick up 200 food boxes from Medosweet Farms. Thanks, Randy and Katherine.

The AM volunteer crew came from primarily Crossroads Bible Church and a couple ringers to help. This crew worked hard in the cold and had to unload all 200 food boxes by hand, as the pallet jack wasn’t available to help. A large pallet full of Costco items came today from Evangelical Chinese Church. Three boys from the crew had the duty of breaking it down and bringing everything inside. It was fun to watch them manage the 50# bags of cat litter. They all did a super job. Thank you, crew!

Volunteers brought food from Safeway Thrasher’s Corner in Bothell yesterday. Volunteers brought food from QFC Crossroads today. Thank you for these wonderful additions!

The delivery of fresh produce came yesterday afternoon from Cascadia Produce in Auburn. This is the last one from a 2-month grant from King County to buy produce from King County farms for King County residents. It has been a wonderful addition to this program. Along with the funding ends, the growing season is essentially done, with the colder temperatures. Today, the market had Brussel sprouts, red beets, mustard greens, collard greens, mushrooms, green cabbage, leeks, and savoy cabbage. We will miss this next week.

The senior market, with the same King County grant money, was offered this afternoon for the last time. About 35 senior citizens in the community came today. We’ll deliver to a few more tomorrow with lunch.

A quick update on a family:

We’ve been following one family whose husband has been battling a reoccurrence of brain cancer since June. The wife texted early this morning with an update and prayer request. Her husband was in severe pain Saturday night, so she called 911 getting him to Overlake Hospital. They found an abscess, and he had a seizure. They did emergency surgery on Sunday, and he is now in recovery. He will remain there for now, while they seek a reason for the seizure. She knows many of you are praying for them and asked you to please continue.

An update on the USDA food boxes:

This week is the last delivery of food boxes within the current USDA ‘Farmers to Families’ program. (You can follow along here: https://www.ams.usda.gov/selling-food-to-usda/farmers-to-families-food-box.) The signed stimulus plan does have money allocated for food assistance, however it is unclear what will happen in January. Three possibilities exist: 1) No new food box program is offered. The money is used in another way to provide food relief to communities.; 2) The current program is extended. This would likely be temporary and would required 1-3 weeks of ramp up, as supply chains have already been broken.; 3) A new food box program is offered and put out to rebid. Bidding would take at least 1 week, and then the ramp up would be 2-3 weeks.

We expect to decide on the plan for next week and beyond by tomorrow. Milk will be one of the harder items to acquire. If anyone is willing, Fred Meyer has half gallons on sale for $.77 through tomorrow with a digital coupon for five units. We’d love to start storing milk up in the refrigerators, 2% or whole milk. More to come…stay tuned.

We begin this week with 712 families in the ‘Groceries for Families’ program. Of the 49 people on the waiting list a few weeks ago who were invited to enter the program, 28 have been added. There are 41 on the waiting list, including the 21 who have not come to enter the program. Since September 1, there have been 68 families removed from the program. There are currently 87 families on the ‘watch list’ for inconsistent attendance. If you’re interested, here is the breakdown of the number of people in each family:

1= 9

2= 53

3= 107

4= 185

5= 188

6= 105

7= 29

8= 23

9= 5

10= 6

11= 1

13= 1

Thank you for your continued support of this program and these families. Your generosity of time, energy, treasure, and prayer is helping so much. We hope 2021 will bring a return of employment for these families, so they can begin to fully support themselves again. Until then, together, we can all help. Thank you!

Happy New Year!

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

Jubilee REACH Communications 1/5/21 Jubilee REACH Communications 1/5/21

Groceries for Families: Week 39 - Day 3

Today started with the scraping of a windshield, and the cold never really let go of the day. Despite the cold, the sky was clean and the sun added some warmth if you could find it. Two days removed from heavy rain and damaging wet snow, today felt just great. The many shoppers braved the cold this morning to bring many bags of groceries and an abundance of pantry items. Thank you all so much! Families were slow to arrive today. The line was modest at the start and got really short by 1:45pm. Yet by 2:15pm the line built back up and stayed steady until 3:10pm. In the end, it was a solid day of attendance. We were wondering if the holiday would pull people away, which it certainly did, but not in great numbers. It was a wonderful day for ending the holiday week.

December 23, 2020

Groceries today came from St. Louise, Newport Covenant, Calvary Chapel Eastside, Indian Fellowship, Crossroads Bible, 24-Seven, Bellevue Christian Reformed, Victory Court and Bellevue Presbyterian churches, as well as Rotary Club of Bellevue, Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club and the Jubilee Friends group. A total of 250 orders came in today and all but 34 went out to families today. Thank you for the extra orders. They will carry over to Monday. Thank you to everyone who donated today!

Jubilee Friends had a record number of orders today, 42! We used to get 3-6 orders daily, but that has really changed in the last month. Today’s group included the Bellevue Fire Department, rolling in with three vehicles. If you have anyone not connected with a participating church or organization, you can provide them this sign up website: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0b49a5aa2ba3fd0-jubilee.

Food boxes arrived by 7:30am this morning. The cold weather was a blessing to keep them cold all morning.

The AM volunteers came from Bellevue Presbyterian today, with a few ringers thrown in to help.

Two families participated, which was great to get children involved. They all worked very hard processing the inflow of groceries, packing in the pantry items, and building the food boxes. Thank you crew!

Four patio heaters were recently donated by a family and went into use yesterday. Wow, just in time for the cold! They are a game changer for these cold days, both for staff and families alike. We now have heat at 1) check-in, 2) soap & oil station, 3) grocery pick-up and 4) food box prep. These are the four areas where people often stand for a length of time. Thank you, sweet donors, for keeping us warm!

Crossroads Bible Church has been donating 50# bags of rice and beans each week in November and December, which volunteers portion out into quart size ziplock bags. Today’s delivery by the CBC crew will carry us over the next two weeks. Thank you CBC for this wonderful gift!

A few stories:

Emil has been mentioned in this email summary before. He comes each Tuesday for groceries but often comes at other times to offer his assistance. He is very friendly, works very hard, and has added a lot to this program. He is from Romania originally, so has shared with us things about his country, the local Romanian culture here, and his own history to get to Bellevue. Yesterday, he came early to help and ended up working with the crew to pack food boxes. When the PM crew came together for the normal orientation at 12:50pm, Emil was there. When we stopped to pray, we asked him to lead us. He was hesitant at first but warmed up to it. He led us in a very heartfelt and personal prayer. Today, he returned to help around 4:00pm. We commented on how meaningful his prayer was yesterday and he was quite shy in saying he wanted it to be special. It was very sweet and so nice to be led by one of the families.
Bertha has been mentioned a few times in this email summary before, too. She comes on Wednesdays with her husband, Vidal, for groceries. While Vidal waits in line, Bertha helps us in the market. For the past month, she has been wearing a yellow vest, which the staff wears. Today, she was in uniform by 12:30pm and already working. When the crew gathered for orientation, she was there. Like Emil, we asked Bertha to pray for us in Spanish. She doesn’t speak English. She was very hesitant but soon started. For those of us who don’t speak Spanish, the prayer was nonetheless very meaningful. She was very proud when she finished. Again, it was sweet and wonderful to be led by one of the families in this way.
Someone dropped off fresh tamales for the crew’s lunch. After the shift, they were gone! No idea who it was but they sure can cook. As you’ve read many times, it is common for families to say thank you through food. We receive it all with gratitude and love.

There has been a lot of emotion shared during the past two weeks between staff and families. The holiday season has brought out a flood of gifts, cards, food, comments, hugs, and joy from the families. It was been wonderful to receive and share it together. For some of the families, there is a very personal bond that has been built with some of the crew. We love many of them as dear friends. Some have been with us since March. This Christmas season has brought it out even stronger, and it is wonderful.

Jubilee REACH will be closed until Monday. Families will be here Mon, Tue, and Wed next week.

Merry Christmas to you all!

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

Groceries for Families began in March 2020 to serve families financially affected by the pandemic. Over 25 organizations and churches have partnered with Jubilee REACH to provide families with groceries, hygiene items, and supplies.

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