Summer is over

The kids went back to school today. At least mine did. This means the summer is over, and yet it feels like it barely began. Soon we will be talking about Christmas, but not yet. With the beginning of school comes our school lunch program. We have already begun supplying one school and in the next few weeks, we will hear from the other schools in the community about their needs.

It is easy to fall into the numbers of it all, and forget that these lunches are going to kids in our community who otherwise would not have lunch. Studies show that kids who are hungry learn less and act up more in school. I know what I am like when I feel a little peckish. Many of these kids may eat once a day. It is a big task, but it is one that must be carried out. We are privileged to serve our community in this way. To serve kids in this way.

Peace,

K

Growing needs create a need to grow

It is hard to believe that we started out 5 years ago with 40 families. This week we delivered food to 106 families. The amazing thing is, that our food supplies have grown right along with the number of people. We always seem to have enough food to give good boxes to our recipients.

We are actually at the point where we need to grow. We need a bigger facility in order to keep up with the need in our community. I would love to move into the center of the community where most of our people live. To create a place where we can offer more resources to the people we serve.

We need cold storage and a walk in freezer. We need dedicated dry storage. We also need a dock-level truck. These have been wishes for the last few years. We are now at the place where they are needs.

All we need is $800,000.....

Peace,

K

The Big Haul

This week, once again our food distribution was over the top. We used "the Green Beast" to pick up our supplies this week from Moisson Montreal. It was a good thing we did. The back door of the bus has been modified and will take a pallet. Along with all of our regular food, we picked up a pallet of McCain Slowcooker Solutions, Chicken A la King. All our families of 4 or more received a box of 6 packages. This provides the whole family with a meal at least 6 nights this week. On average our boxes were worth about $100 this week. That is amazing. Thanks to our friend who has made "The Green Beast" available. It has already opened some new doors for us.

A Columbian lady came in Tuesday looking for assistance. Her husband was laid off last week and they have 3 kids under 6 years old. She was very shy and told us that they have never asked for assistance before. I assured her that she is not alone. In the past year we have had many people come to request help, who are embarassed about needing help.

Her friend is a Peruvian who was also in need. As we talked, we asked if she could help us with some of our spanish speaking families that we had trouble communicating with. This lady has agreed to be our liason with these families, which is a big deal to us. We also acquired a Haitian liason this week.

Not a bad week. The Green Beast, and 2 liasons, and great food supplies. God provides.

Peace,

K

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