WOW is how I describe the beginning of this year.

There has been so many things going on in and around us. We started this year with vandalism to our vans. It is one of those things that you think won’t happen to you and then it does. Whoever vandalized our vans took the muffler system, including the catalytic converters. This hurt us extremely bad. When our vans can’t run then we can’t pick up food. And when we don’t have a way to pick up food then the food gets wasted and not distributed to our struggling families in our community. Boy did our community jump up and help get our vans back on the road quickly though. By the end of the week we had our vans back up and running to pick up donations. It was because of all our special donors and Seeley that we were able to get the vans fixed and back on the road. We had to rent a couple of vans to get us by, and our loving supportive community help with the costs we endured by their blessings of donations. Thank you so much to those who stepped up and helped out.

Some more good news… Feeding America donated a box refrigeration truck with a lift gate !! How awesome is this?!?!?! Pretty incredible I say. Not only can we now pick up more at a time with it being significantly bigger than our vans, we also can use it to pick up frozen or refrigerated items that are in mass quantities. Our volunteers are really excited about getting this truck donated. It even came with a conveyor belt system!! We are so blessed.

With the virus still present and things not back to normal, we have decided to continue with the drive-thru type distribution for the foreseeable future. This means that you will stay in your vehicles at all times and we will load your groceries into your trunks or truck beds only. So in order for us to be able to load your groceries you must have your trunks and truck beds empty. We give away full carts of groceries so it is very important to have your trunk cleaned out. This way we are loading the safest way possible for our clients and volunteers. We are now requiring our clients to fill out a registration form. You MUST fill this form out in order to get groceries. We hand them out while you’re in line and you will need to fill it out before you get to the loading zone. You will be given two forms. One to fill out and turn in at that time and one for you to bring back with you already filled out for next time. This way the line will move quicker. If you refuse to fill out this form then you will be asked to leave. It is vital that we have them filled out so we can turn them into the U.S.D.A. So please do YOUR part and fill them out.

Joe’s Farm is a small family farm located in Three Rivers. They have great free range chickens that lay beautiful eggs. Joe has been blessing us with eggs for our clients for several years now. Thank you Joe and Family for providing our clients with beautiful healthy fresh eggs for our community. Check out their website at http://joesfarm.us

We would love to thank everyone who participated in the Meijer Simply Give Program through our local Shaver Rd Meijer. Because of our generous donors who went to the store and purchased the simply give cards, we raised the most we’ve raised in history for Twelve Baskets !! This means that YOUR donations through the program at Meijer on Shaver Rd turned into fantastic gift cards that we can use to purchase things within the actual store and through their online b2b site as well!! We jumped for joy and sang praises to the Lord when we got the gift cards. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH TO ALL THOSE WHO DONATED.

We would also love to thank the Lake Center Elementary School staff, children, parents, and friends. They decided since we are dealing with the virus, that this year they would do a monetary donation competition between the classrooms. Every class participated !! We are so excited to announce that Mr Maurer’s 5th Grade Class raised the most money this year!! SO AWESOME!! Great job kid, staff, and family members!!

We also had a 15 year old boy who was given a $5 bill and was told to do something good for the community. He decided that he would ask his buddies if they would match the $5 bill and he would donate it to Twelve Baskets. His goal was to get 9 of his friends to do this so he could give us $50. Well, he did that and then some!! Thank you so much! Pretty incredible how the youth is getting more and more involved in helping out the community that surrounds them.

OUR CURRENT NEEDS:

We are still struggling with dependable consistent volunteers. We have had a good turn out of teenagers wanting to pitch in and help, but we are in need of ADULT volunteers that have a valid drivers license and can lift 40+ pounds. You must be able to wear a mask for the whole time you are inside.  If you know of anyone who fits this criteria please have them reach out to us. We are needing people to help on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays unloading trucks and stocking from 9am-noon.  We are also looking for people who can help during distribution days. These days are the first and third Fridays from 2:30-5:30pm and the second and 4th Saturdays from 10am-1pm. If you are able to help please email Heather at mazeheather@yahoo.com.

We are also in the middle of a capital funds campaign to purchase and renovate the building in our north parking lot. So we are looking to raise $500,000!!! To help us grow you can make a monetary donation through our website by clicking this link and specify it to go to our capital funds campaign. Thank you to all those who have already donated and those who plan on donating  http://www.twelve-baskets.org

Did you know that when you shop at Family Fair or D&W you can help raise money for Twelve Baskets??!! Yep, it’s true!! All you need to do is get a receipt and either mail it or drop them off at our pantry. With every FULL receipt we get, we get money in return. So if everyone saved their receipts from those stores then we could earn a lot of money!! When we get a good amount we send them in and they send us a check! So cool right?! We think so. We have been doing this for a couple years now. We just need you to make sure you’re sending us your full receipt. They will not accept them if they are missing parts.

We are still needing paper grocery bags. When you shop, ask for paper and then save them for us!! We go through 400 bags minimum every week for distribution. Please help us by dropping off your paper grocery bags in our donation bin at 10332 Portage Rd Portage MI 49002.

If you or someone you know would like to join us in the fight against hunger by fundraising, please reach out to us. We are always in need of people to help us fundraise. Our board member Romona is our leader of the fundraising team. Give us a call if you would like to join her team.

Don’t forget that we have an awesome free store in our north parking lot! We have everything from baby clothes to house hold items. We also have personal care items and laundry soap too!! We also carry over the counter medicines. This free store is open to the public twice a week!! Every Tuesday and the first and third Saturday and the second and 4th Friday of every month. See our events page for more information.

Thank you so much to our volunteers for their continuous help every day with pickups, cleaning, stocking, unloading trucks and mostly for showing up and helping serve on distribution days. Without our volunteers we surely wouldn’t be able to help so many families. Thank a volunteer. They have special hearts.

God Bless…

Twelve Baskets Food Pantry Board