Your all volunteer team has been very active at the food closet. Attached is the 2016 report through July showing the numbers of people and families served each month.  It is amazing.  We have already served over 21,000 people and almost 7,000 families. But most months in 2016 have had less people than we had in 2015.  For the first time in 5 years, the year to date numbers are less than a year ago by 952 people (almost 5%) and 378 families (5%).  This is exciting and we praise the Lord. However, this is tempered by 792 new families added to date (about 11%). Our community still needs a helping hand and we are there to reach out.

So we continue to rejoice and praise the Lord.  He is abundantly bringing in food supplies and donations to meet all of our needs. As an example, we have received another grant.  This time it is $3,000 from Sacramento Food Bank.  This is in addition to the $15,000 CDBG grant and the $5,000 Community Support grant from the City of Citrus Heights. We are receiving and handing out about 24,000 pounds of food per month. We actually handle this amount at least 3 times – receive and unload, stock, and deliver. No wonder we are always busy.

The largest project we have ever attempted is still moving forward, even if slowly. Last year we were asked what our dream advancement was and we came up with the idea of a walk in cooler / freezer. This would help immensely with frozen meat capacity and allow us to have dairy and fresh produce products.   A number of you agreed and offered financial support. When the team met in January to start the project we were going to use a storage room which Advent Lutheran Church was allowing us to use. But the team immediately encountered a number of engineering problems. It was suggested we move the project outside and again Advent Church would allow us to build there. This resolved a number of architectural, structural, and capacity problems. However, we still have an electrical load challenge. The power coming onto the property is already maxed out.

Our cooler/freezer team met with the City planning department.  They agreed with our concept to bring power to the new units and for load sharing with the church usage.  But they currently will not allow the total load to be greater than what comes to the property even though the code allows it with load sharing.  Our electrical engineer is preparing to meet with the head of the department to review interpretation of the code.  In the mean time the team is meeting with SMUD and filling an application for a project to bring more power to the property.  So as the saga continues, we will keep you updated.

One of the other main challenges for the project is finances. We originally thought $15,000 - $20,000 would be sufficient. And you supporters contributed that amount. But now with the increased size, electrical challenges, permitting and other areas the estimate has grown to $100,000. This has staggered our imagination but, by faith, we believe we are still to go forward. To date, we have had over $40,000 given in support of the project. With the delays in permitting and building we have been given time to raise the rest of the funds. If you know of any church group or civic or service group that would be interested in hearing more about what we do, please let us know. We would be happy to make a presentation to them.

So to wrap up, here is a list of praises and prayers:

• Praise for Gods supply in product donations and finances
• Praise for sufficient volunteers to meet all the needs
• Praise for replacement of failed refrigerator
• Praise for electric pallet jack to handle movement of food
• Praise for support and encouragement from 25 supporting churchs
• Pray for continued donations
• Pray for strength and health of volunteers.
• Pray for additional volunteers
• Pray for finances and solutions to cooler / freezer project

Thank you and may God richly bless you for your continued support and prayers

The Board

Sunrise Christian Food Ministry.