December 6, 2023

This time of year all kinds of merry music is on the Radio... like "Here Comes Santa Claus.. Here Comes Santa Claus.. Right down Santa Claus Lane." This past Saturday, a sleigh (Christ School Van) arrived filled with food and students. These young men went right to work unloading their food donation and assisting with the morning neighbor distribution. On Monday, First Bank arrived with food that filled two shopping carts. Several bags of personal care products were delivered by a group of retired educators from Kappa Conclave.  Throughout the week lots of elves have left donations in our foyer and we are most appreciative of these contributions and with them can refill our shelves. 150 families arrived for food on Saturday. This number represents 529 family members and thirteen new families.

Another highlight of this week: The Walnut Cove Members Association awarded us a grant to exclusively provide support for the purchase of food. The Association is all about Caring, Connecting, and Community that brings the property owners together to give back to the local community. A member of the community is required to volunteer at our pantry as part of the grant. With this grant, we are able to continue our goal of providing 11 meals or 3 1/2 days of food each week.

Our Garden Master, Doug Kearney, gathered several volunteers together on Friday to harvest 75 heads of lettuce from the Hoophouse. The beets are maturing too but not ready to be harvested. Stay tuned for updates!

Donations this week included Bimbos and City Bakery with bread and bakery items. Bright Farms donated 25 cases of salad.  Other donors include: Flavor-First-tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers,  Wal-Mart and Big Lots-misc items and food,  Project Dignity-feminine products, Humane Society- dog/cat food and Milk Co-milk.  Calvary Episcopal, Nativity Lutheran, Fletcher UMC, the Tabernacle of Praise Churches, and other anonymous donors contributed their time, food, and misc. items during the week.

On behalf of the Executive Committee, thank you to our volunteers and our area churches, civic groups, local merchants, and families for all you do to feed our community, helping to reduce food insecurity.  We thank you and appreciate your food and monetary donations.