Rina

On Monday, we were blessed with an amazing amount of food from our distributors.

The same day, Rina walks into On Rock. When she sees me she just breaks down crying. Rina suffers from depression and lost her job, she tells me she hasn't eaten for 4 days. Rina lives 1 block from the food bank. She tells me she was on her way here the other day and one of our other clients(who is very possessive about his food) told her we didn't have any food to spare. She went home and spent the next 3 days sleeping. Sleeping is a good alternative to dealing with hunger pains.

After a short lecture on what our food bank does, we drove Rina home with a great box of food. Rina and her 15 year old son will eat well this week.

We deliver 100+ baskets a week. During the school year we provided 100 lunches a week to local school kids who come to school without a lunch. Today we spent some time calculating how much food we distributed in the past year. Through the food bank we distributed $300,000 worth of food. In the lunch program we distributed $27,000 worth of lunches.

We are amazed and encouraged with these numbers. Sometimes we can wonder whether we are really helping anyone. When I see these numbers, I stop wondering. We can make a difference, and we do. Just ask Rina.

Peace,

K

Pizza for everyone...

Today we had one of those amazing phone calls. It came from our primary food supplier. He asked if we wanted some frozen pizza. I replied, I will be right over. We usually pick up food on Monday right before food bank. This is the first middle of the week, "we have surplus" call we have received.

When I arrived, I asked how many boxes I could take. On most items we get there is a limit based on the size of organization we are. Today Mike said, "how much do you want? Fill your van." I love that answer. I was able to take 32 boxes. That is 374 pizzas. I had to be very creative in storing them, but we had them all in freezers by noon. Thanks to a local church who kindly let us fill their freezer until Monday when we will ship them out to our families.

It is amazing what we can pull of when we work together. We can make a difference.

Peace,

K

And still growing...

This week, we broke the 100 mark. Yesterday we delivered boxes to 103 families. This is good news because it means our waiting list is shrinking. We have been making requests for more food from our distributors so that we can kill the waiting list, but it has been amazing that without any official response, we are getting enough food to make a dent in the waiting list.

It is a good feeling to be able to call up a family who has been on the waiting list since may and tell them they are now on the distribution list. I hate waiting for anything. I can't imagine waiting to get enough food to feed my family.

Thank you to everyone who helps make this happen.

Peace,

K

A Good Week

This week has been a good week, and its only Wednesday. Pete and Lina had their baby last weekend and Pete is off for a few weeks. This means, I did his food bank deliveries this week with John. It is amazing to see how Pete has built relationship with some of his people. Several, upon seeing me, asked "Where's Pete?" As I explained the his baby was born, there were smiles and squeals and questions. Sometimes this was followed by, "so when is Pete back?"

Today, I had an amazing meeting with a lady who works at a health clinic. Her clinic wants to give back to the community and has asked if we could partner with them. They want to raise money, food and awareness in the West Island to help in the struggle with poverty. She also has some connection with food distributors. This is a very exciting development for us.

What will tomorrow bring?

Peace,

K