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.

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You may have heard about The Elf on the Shelf, a picture book for children where the Elf hides in people's homes to watch over holiday events. Our Pantry has its own Elf who watches over our Pantry. It's Elf on a Rack, a food rack. Our Elf has a sack and is asking for a food item for his holiday Sack. Items will be distributed on Saturdays to our neighbors between 8:00-11:00. Please help our Elf on the Rack fill his Food Sack.

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Volunteers, Mayor Preston Blakley leading the Food Drive from the Fletcher Community, Thrivent, Scouts, Lion's Club Vision Screening Members, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy Interns, and generous supporters from our area are the THANKS in THANSGIVING!  Because of your kindness by volunteering your time or monetary donations, we provided 229 neighbors with 3 1/2 days of food and a Thanksgiving Meal this past Saturday. These neighbors represent 826 family members and 17 new families.

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"Happy Friendsgiving! Because of the kindness from the pantry community, we are able to offer our neighbors the items for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Generous donations of stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, gravy, and monetary donations allowed us to purchase turkeys, green beans, potatoes, rolls, and butter. Distribution of these items will be this Saturday between 8:00-11:00. It's all hands on deck as volunteers will assist our neighbors for their 3 1/2 days of food.

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Reflections from the fall are numerous.  Students volunteered from the Global Lens Club at Hendersonville High School to the Day of Caring students from Christ School.  We welcomed Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Pharmacy Interns, Lion's Club, a Deerfield constituency of enthusiastic weekly volunteers,  ArdenWoods residents who sponsored a successful Hunger Walk, introduced bulk ordering ensuring that we meet our goal to provide eleven meals a week, and celebrated with our volunteers  at a Garden and Pantry Appreciation cookout...just to mention a few highlights.

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When you think of celebrity chefs, Martha Stewart and Paula Dean may come to mind. We too have Martha, Linda, and Joe who are preparing tasty recipes from items available to our neighbors in the pantry. This past Saturday Chef Martha prepared a mouth-watering burrito filled with sautéed veggies and an egg. Girl Scouts from Troop 2984 and 2987 prepared a dozen "Birthday Bags" for our neighbors filled with cake mix, icing, candles, plates napkins, and candles.

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Want to keep up with the Pantry and Garden? Then we have one word for you...Roller Skates. There is so much activity preparing for the neighbor food distribution on Saturday that sauntering along will leave you in the dust. (Only kidding-us over 60 are keeping up pretty well.) On Sunday afternoon, Blue Ghost Brewery supported a fundraiser for the Pantry. The band, Steady State, offered music and fellowship time for attendees' from our community.

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Many of you may be putting your home gardens "to bed" for the winter but not at the Lord's Acre of Fletcher. Our seedlings are almost ready to be planted in the raised beds in our hoop house. Meanwhile, our raised beds in the hoop house worked so well deterring weeds that we will replace the rows between the trellis and hoop house with raised beds. Over a dozen hardy souls built 28 boxes 2' x 12" x 10 for raised beds in an hour on Saturday. Doug Kearney, our Garden Master, shared that the raised beds will season over the winter and be installed this spring. Many thanks to our volunteers who helped on Saturday afternoon...Scout Troop 91, Fletcher UMC, Nativity Lutheran, and a pantry client.

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Calling all volunteers! We are having a Thank You Cookout for all of our LAF Garden and Pantry volunteers in the garden on October 26 from 4-6:30. Gather in the garden for burgers, dogs, chips, slaw, and dessert. Bring a drink and a chair.  We'll gather around the campfire to celebrate a record year in the garden and pantry.  Music will be provided by the Calvary musicians.

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Are we helping to reduce Food Insecurity in our community? How do we discern this simple yet complex question?  We can look at our data. Two weeks ago 155 households shopped for food, and this past week we welcomed 134 households with twelve new families. Fred reported that for the month 670 families visited our pantry representing 2,486 individuals. We are so blessed that you — our community — donated 21,418 pounds of food and non-food to the pantry.

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Morning had definitely broken as Chefs Dan and Martha were scurrying around the Parish Hall kitchen firing up the grills and preparing the unique Vining pancake batter. Meanwhile scouts from Troop 61, volunteers, students from Hendersonville High School began arriving to assist with food distribution and the Pancake Breakfast. As our "neighbors" arrived they were offered breakfast at the Parish Hall: pancakes, bacon, milk and coffee. While Fr. J., Todd, Dick, and Troop 61  grilled the pancakes, Tom and Kim were offering hot pancakes and crispy bacon to the neighbors. 

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Last Thursday night two of our garden volunteer families and other volunteers filled Doug's truck full of freshly harvested produce for distribution on Saturday. Oh...if you could have seen the delight in the neighbors’ eyes as they filled their carts with collards, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Because of the help of volunteers that we have in our community, our garden has produced 50% more produce this year. After the abundant amount of produce gathered last week, it was a blessing that the Day of Caring at Christ School was last Wednesday.

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You heard it first here! This year over a ton of produce was harvested from the garden and now over a gallon of raw honey extracted from our two beehives. Our honey is like other raw honey, it contains no preservatives and thanks to Doug, our Garden Master, it comes with an official LAF label, bee charm, and honey dipper.  Being on the "Quality Control Committee" has its perks! Yummmmmy honey!

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You can "BEE" sure there's lots going on at the LAF and Pantry!  Just this past week, Garden Master Doug Kearney extracted honey from the hives leaving plenty of honey  to hold the bees over the winter months. Doug reminds us that the honey is unique to our area. Pollination comes from local vegetation in our vicinity. Because of extremely generous donations of fresh produce from the Fletcher Rotary Club (corn & tomatoes), Tractor Farms (corn, potatoes, cucumber, squash, tomatoes, apples, micro greens, and herbs), Flavor-First (tomatoes, peppers, and corn) and LAF (garden-beans and tomatoes), it was a bountiful week of fresh produce.

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Word on the Street....is that the Calvary Episcopal Church Food Pantry is a "Happening  Place!" Just last Saturday, thanks to the many donations of school supplies, an entire food shelf was filled with enough supplies for all of our pantry neighbor's children.  Bette, a retired Buncombe County School teacher, helped neighbors select items appropriate for their grade level. Conscious Alliance and Orchard Valley have partnered with us to feed families in our community experiencing food insecurity. Their iconic ALLIANCE of brands, bands, artists, and fans use their time and talents to make it all happen. They donated cases of trail mix in four flavors filled with fruit and nuts. Perfect for lunch boxes or snack time.

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Youth from Christ School spent time volunteering with us this past Saturday -- I would call them Generation A… (Assurance!!!) This group of young men arrived on the Pantry campus eager to begin working in the pantry and garden. Initially they made their way to the LAF (Lord's Acre of Fletcher) garden while it was still cool and weeded row after row of beans that were being taken over by the weeds. No task was too small for them to take on. 

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The late night thunder, lightning, and rain did not deter the hardy LAF harvesters. The sun was just rising in the east early Tuesday morning as Doug, Daniel, and Kim hand-picked almost thirty pounds of cucumbers,  squash, and tomatoes. Many thanks to these hardy souls, as time to harvest is of the utmost essence as our forest friends found the garden "buffet."  The next opportunity for LAF harvesting is on Thursday night at 6:30. Don't want to forget a huge thank you to all who contributed to the compost bins.

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They say, "The early bird gets the worm!"  Thanks to the many harvesters this week, no bears, raccoons, opossums, or nematodes got even one Mini Love watermelon. Yes, you are hearing it here first! Over a ton of fresh produce has been distributed to our neighbors this season. The squash, green beans, tomatoes, ground cherries, green peppers, cucumbers, and jalapeños just keep producing. We have finished gathering the beets. It's worth a "drive by" this week to see the large area beside the hoop house where the collards will be planted. We can always use one more planter on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m.

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You Reap What You Sow"  Do I hear an AMEN! Our neighbors are enjoying freshly picked  produce weekly.  In July  over 800 pounds of vegetables were harvested by hand.  Since the spring planting, we have distributed over 1,461 pounds of  fresh produce and recorded 630 volunteer hours.  Just as a personal note.... all our produce is organically grown. Thanks to grants that have funded drip lines etc.  and steady seasonal rains, our produce  does not have to be washed  before distribution.

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911-911...No it's not that kind of emergency.  Our goal is to distribute food weekly to aid in reducing food insecurity in our community. However, recently we have experienced some challenges of our own.  Our 15 grocery carts are used throughout the week to collect donations in the foyer and to transport food items to the shelves. An average of 110 neighbors are shopping with them on Saturday mornings. The carts are sturdy, but the wheels have given out on 1/3 of the carts. The good news is Dan, with a little on-line research, was able to purchase "kits to repair the wheels." Nothing like having a AAA volunteer, called the  SCR Man (Shopping Cart Repairman). Another recent challenge is the realization that our garden has doubled in size since last year.

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