On Saturday, January 6, 2024, before the effects of a long Advent/Christmas season had worn off, the volunteers for the Food Pantry had a rather daunting challenge.

In one day, they were to clean out the two storage rooms and the “Dungeon” in preparation for cleaning and repair of these rooms.

As many of you know who are at church after one of the bimonthly food distribution Saturdays, the numbers appearing at the church for food have steadily increased since Debby Campbell and Peggy Walck have taken over the running of it. They have assembled an outstanding cadre of volunteers who do very good work and are the kind of “happy campers” any food pantry wants to have doing service.

This January the pantry is closed. At some point closing the pantry was going to be necessary. Even were there not urgent work to be done, all food pantries must shut down periodically to get things back in order and to clean house.

Going from serving around 70 families/month to serving over 1000 families/month has taken a toll on the physical space as well as the volunteers. It is good to report that the work of cleaning, inventory and getting ready to replace the flooring and to add better storage for perishable food storage was completed.

Volunteers, please be aware that on January 20th, mandatory Volunteer Training will take place. If anyone wants to continue or wants to join the volunteers, this training must be completed.

The next Food Pantry distribution will be on February 3, 2024. Volunteers in early shift to show up at 8:30.

This ministry does important work as Christ instructed us to do.

Deborah Emin