Friendship House News.

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Vol. 3 Issue 6 End of Summer 2023

Food Pantry Visits Hold Steady

The increase in Food Pantry visits experienced earlier in the year have held steady throughout the summer. Across June, July and August, the pantry has had 1,624 visits or an average of 544 visits per month. This is significantly more visits per month than the previous five months. Managing the food purchases and donations so that shelves are stocked continues to be challenging. We are budgeting additional dollars to go out and purchase food items beyond what is donated and ordered from Foodlink.

You can help. Are you a member of a club or group that can sponsor a food drive? Or can you pick up a few items with your regular grocery shopping? Either way, the help is beyond appreciated and needed.

“We certainly could use food donations, especially pasta, tomato products and peanut butter among other things”, says Craig Carr, Food Pantry Manager.

Can you help? Give Craig a call (585-554-6056), send us a message on social media or an email at info@friendshiphousemiddlesex.com. We would love to hear from you.

Fresh Produce

Our thanks and gratitude go out to all the local gardeners and farmers who have stopped by with wonderful fresh produce throughout the summer. We had such a great supply of fresh items for people who visited the pantry for food. Healthy, fresh, and wonderful. . Our Food Pantry patrons have been blessed.

Our Opening Hours

In August we tried a change in our opening hours and it seemed to work out pretty well. We are open the same number of hours but, we moved the opening (and closing) times on Friday and Saturday a half hour earlier. The Wednesday hours have not changed. These will be our hours going forward:

Wednesdays: 3 - 6pm (no change)

Fridays: 10:30 - 2:30pm

Saturdays: 10:30 - 2:30pm

Craig Carr, Cathy Guattery, Stuart Mitchell, Mitch Gruber (left to right)

New heating system (above)

Walk-in freezer

(right)

Pictures courtesy of Stuart Mitchell

We Welcomed Vistors

On July 14th, Friendship House was pleased to welcome a pair of visitors for a site visit. Dr. Mitch Gruber, Senior VP of Community Impact at Foodlink stopped by with Stuart Mitchell for a tour. They had the opportunity to chat with the managers and see first hand some of the improvements they have been instrumental in bringing to Friendship House.

Two years ago the Mitchell Family Investment Fund supported the upgrade to the furnace and heating systems which has had a significant positive impact for visitors and staff at Friendship House. Last year Foodlink donated the funds to install a walk-in freezer which helps enormously by providing additional space for frozen food items in the Pantry. Throughout the tour, Mitch and Stuart were able to see the improvements and speak with managers Cathy Guattery and Craig Carr about the volume of families helped and ways Friendship House can better serve the growing community.

“The Friendship House is well organized, very clean, and staffed with friendly and engaged volunteers.” commented Stuart. “Mitch and I had a wonderful day together and thoroughly enjoyed our visit with Cathy, Craig and the very engaged team of volunteers”, he said.

We very much enjoyed hosting the visit and highlighting the improvements and some information about our current volume and services. Most of all, we are truly grateful for the support Mitch and Stuart have provided Friendship House and are pleased they were able to see how their support helps us fulfill our mission.

Just Around the Corner

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and Friendship House will again provide Thanksgiving Food Boxes to interested, eligible families. As in the past, sign ups for those interested in the Thanksgiving Food Box will start towards the end of October.

This year, to be eligible for our holiday Meal Box programs, a person (or family) must be a current Food Pantry user and reside within the Marcus Whitman School District. As Friendship House receives and distributes USDA products, we must comply with their requirements for the distribution of food. We hope that the families who rely on the Food Pantry regularly will take full advantage of the holiday meal boxes we provide.

Safety Training

Our mission to serve the community means that there are plenty of people through our doors every week. While we have several skilled nurses as volunteers, it’s important to us to make sure that we can help if something unexpected happens. To that end, we have reviewed our safety protocols including updating our first aid supplies. In May, several of the Friendship House staff and volunteers took part in a Narcan training course. This month, volunteers will participate in CPR and AED (automated external defibrillator) training. Safety first!

Photos courtesy of Priscilla B.

Recipes and Meal Suggestions Too!

“Thank you guys for the suggestion for the Oxtail stew. It was delicious!” - Priscilla B.

No idea what to do for dinner? Like to try black beans but not sure what to do with them? We’re glad to help. Over the summer, we’ve started putting together a recipe or two a week (and some good suggestions on the side) that features items from the Food Pantry. The recipes have just a few ingredients, are quick, easy and delicious.

Some of the recent recipes include; Black Bean Burger, Cucumber Salad, Zucchini Bread, Collard Green Reubens and the very popular Catfish and Slaw Sandwich. We’re having lots of fun looking for a good recipe of the week and hope you’ll pick one up when you visit. Have you made one of the recipes? Share the results with us (extra points for pictures)!

Do you have a favorite recipe you’d like to share? We would love to hear from you. Just drop a copy off in the Pantry or send us an email at info@friendshiphousemiddlesex.com and your recipe could be featured as the Recipe of the Week!

The national President’s Volunteer Service Award is an opportunity to honor our outstanding volunteers and recognize the impact they make. Learn more at www.presidentialserviceawards.gov

Bronze

100 - 299 Hours Donated

Roman Kamola Lucinda Loomis

Cindy Bryan John Magin

Margo Gilman Don Waltermeir

Kathy Volpe

Volunteer Recognition

In July the Board of Directors hosted the annual Friendship House Volunteer Recognition Barbeque where volunteers were honored for the hours they dedicated to the Friendship House Food Pantry and Thrift Shop during 2022. It was a day of good food, good company, friendship and recognition.

Making up 90% of the workforce of Friendship House, our volunteers deserve an abundance of recognition and respect. For 2022, 39 volunteers donated 10,837 hours of time. Additionally, twenty of those volunteers qualified for the national President’s Volunteer Service Award.

On average, Friendship House helped 300 families with food needs over the course of 2022. Some families visited regularly and others stopped in just a few times. To put the work in perspective, it takes 36 hours of volunteer time to support just one family served in the Food Pantry. That includes the volunteer hours picking up, handling and stocking of food, staffing the open hours, sorting & organizing donations of goods, keeping the Thrift Shop stocked, running special sales and assisting shoppers. All these efforts directly or indirectly support the ability to serve a family in need of food.

Thanks and congratulations to each volunteer who gave of their time and effort in support of the mission of Friendship House.

President’s Volunteer Service Awards

Silver

250 - 499 Hours Donated

Christine Beechner John Baylor

Rick Foringer Jim Loomis

Joe Harris Dawn Lippincott

Gold

500 + Hours Donated

Jan Fisher Linda Dean

Shirley Dean Sue Ford

Cathy Guattery Pat Springer

Preacher Milligan

Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) of the Month

Question:

Will Friendship House be hosting the usual programs around the holidays this year?

Answer:

Yes, can you believe we’ve already started the planning? We are putting the details together right now for Santa Sunday, Thanksgiving and Christmas programs. Keep an eye out in newsletters and on social media for the dates and requirements for registration.