Friends and Supporters of Sunrise Christian Food Ministry – Praise God for all your faithful interest and involvement in Sunrise Christian Food Ministry (SCFM). We are still operating and going strong through all the pressures of COVID, inflation, and increasing needs of clients. We have found the only thing sure of, besides God’s provision, is change. We are consistently facing change. One of the biggest changes is in our Board Leadership. Since COVID began, most of our long term members have removed themselves from active involvement. This has included Vera Jones, Rick Hawkins, Paula McAsey, and Dorthy Michales. We thank them for many years of participation. Our Treasurer, Nancy Markert, had to step down due to health issues. In January, after serving 14 years, Pam Chatham, our Vice President and Assistant Director of Operations, had to retire due to many family health issues. And finally, after 13 years of service, Rocky Peterson, just retired as President and Director of Operations. The remaining members of the Board are April Jacek, President, Donna Wagner, Vice President, Angelica Mangabay, Secretary, Jeff Hansen, and Rocky Peterson is currently Treasurer. Another major change has resulted from the large increase in clients we serve and the need for additional handling of volunteers and food supplies. Whereas it used to be overseen by one or two people, we have created a few new positions. Now we have a Director of Operations (April), Transportation Coordinator (Jeff), and Shift Supervisors (Donna and Angelica). Because the work has become full time, we have started to pay a small stipend for these positions. We were the only large food closet in Sacramento County without paid staff. In addition to our accomplishments on-site at the food closet we continue to share our ministry throughout the community in partnership with Citrus Heights HART and their outreach programs for the homeless and families. Specifically we support the Underground Clothing Connection, Summer Respite at Living Water Church and navigator office hours at Advent Lutheran. SCFM continues to lift up a group of local missionaries taking food, supplies and snacks to the streets, where our homeless client’s need it the most. Without the support of Sunrise Christian Food Ministry these selfless men and women would not have the ability to share their servant’s heart and many of our neighbors would go without. We could not cast the net over our community without the dedication and support of our local church partners that help not only to provide volunteers and monetary support but time and time again they reach out to their congregation and connections to provide an abundance of food and resources. One amazing example of this could be seen in God’s blessing of 1400 bags of food that was given to Heights Church by Convoy of Hope to share with us. This is what a week of feeding our neighbors looks like.  As we transition out of summer and into fall we would like to share with you the tremendous need that still exists for food and assistance in Sacramento County and beyond. From January 1, 2022-August 31, 2022 SCFM provided 5,090 families with food assistance for a total of 16,500 distributions. Of the 5,090 families, 2,200 were first time visitors in 2022. Nearly half of all families we served in the first eight months of the year had never visited our food closet before. When we break down these numbers further we can see that the 16,500 food distributions put over 825 tons of food in the tummies of 55,000 neighbors in need. As staggering as these numbers are, they only show a fraction of the work that our dedicated volunteers must do to feed our families. Before we can distribute food, volunteers must first pick up, unload, weigh, sort 2400 tons of donations then they stack, pack, set up and finally give out the 825 tons of food. When you look at it by the numbers, it is nothing short of a miracle that our volunteers are able to continue to meet the needs day after day, week after week and now nearly 40 years later here we are, our volunteers and God are still providing. We share our needs with you asking for your prayers and advice: Our By-Laws state that each of the supporting churches (and we have 20 such churches) can have a representative advisor on the Board of Directors. We would appreciate it if you could encourage your church to inquire and appoint a person to help represent you. With the struggling supply chain and rising inflation, it is becoming more difficult with obtaining all the food supplies we require. Please be praying for sufficient donations to meet the increasing need. With an increasing number of clients each month, the need is for additional volunteers to serve them, as the client number increases so does the quantity of food and packaging increase. Please be praying for people to be willing to come and serve. And the funds for supplies will be provided.
In closing, hear the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians – Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. For information on how you can get more deeply involved, please visit us at www.sunrisechristianfoodministry.org to learn more. Thank you and God bless. Sunrise Christian Food Ministry Board of Directors
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