September 17, 2012
Another very busy night at the pantry. We had 172 including 16 new families. Our numbers continue to grow and grow each week. We had 19 volunteers on Tuesday and another 43 on Thursday. I am so grateful that we are blessed to have a wonderful food pantry for families to turn to but so sad that there are that many families around us that need assistance. We have been more than blessed with produce this summer. We have onions, potatoes, peppers, mushrooms and carrots that we have been able to give out. Thanks to our partnership with Grace Community Church.
Our needs this week include cereal, oatmeal, pop-tarts, boxed dinners, cake mixes, brownies, canned foods and snacks and sugar.
A special thanks this week to one of our regular Tuesday and Thursday volunteers, Jackie Ehman. Jackie has been helping for a few years. A while back Jackie's husband passed away and Jackie requested food donations for the pantry in place of flowers for her husband's funeral. What an unselfish request. We are so blessed to have you Jackie!
Blessings,
Kim
September 10, 2012
We continue to be very busy at the pantry! Last Thursday we had 165 families including 7 new families. They were assisted by 20 volunteers on Tuesday that stocked and 57 volunteers on Thursday. We continue to have a great need for Thursday volunteers especially from 5pm to 6pm as a lot of people leave.
We are in need of cereal (which is on sale at Marsh this week $1.49 a box), peanut butter (also $1.99 at Marsh) oatmeal, cream of wheat, cake and brownie mixes, sugar, canned vegetables, canned meats and boxed dinners. We always appreciate paper bags and plastic bag donations that we can reuse.
If anyone is interested in making laundry soap (very easy recipe) please contact me. It is a great way to save money at home as well. My family uses this type for our front loader all of the time. We give away a bottle to each family each month and always need additional soap makers. Average cost is a couple of dollars for 5 gallons!
We are so grateful to Grace Community Church for donating so many perishable items each week. We thank Hinkle Friends church for their personal hygiene products. It is wonderful to see our churches working together for the good of our community. Several of our families are simply unable to purchase fresh produce or have the personal hygiene products on hand so this is such a blessing. Thank you to everyone that brings in donations. There are definitely weeks that we are not sure if we will have enough food for next week but you always come through for us.
A special thanks this week to Bob Armstrong. He is the friendly man that helps out our families at "the bun station". Bob is always smiling and helping to make our guests feel comfortable. He might have on a flashing button or a Sheriff's badge, but whatever he says, it is probably not his birthday. Bob also picks up our bread on Tuesdays and Thursdays from Marsh, and we appreciate him so much! His lovely wife Maryjane helps us on Thursdays take guests around, and we are thankful for her as well.
Blessings,
Kim
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