Fall /
Winter 2017
Friends and Supporters
of Sunrise Christian Food Ministry:
Merry Christmas to
you. Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving is over and
now it's on to Christmas and into a New Year. Time waits for no one.
Many people need help with food availability and we are blessed to be called by
the Lord to help meet the need.
2017 has continued with
growth in serving for the food closet. So far, through November, we have
served about 4000 more people this year than last year. We expect to be
serving more than 40,000 people for the year which amounts to 600,000
meals. We distributed more than 1400 turkeys in the three weeks before
Thanksgiving. 400 of those were in the last three days. A busy,
busy time around here. Our volunteers are exceptional. They have to
pick up, deliver, store, repackage and distribute all of the food. It
seems to never end.
With the increased
number of clients served and increased volume of food supplies, we are needing
additional volunteers. We have need for
drivers to pick up and deliver food (usually between 8:00 – 11:00, depending on
what stores), volunteers to stock the shelves (between 7:30 – 11:00), baggers
and distributors (between 11:00 – 3:00), and desk personnel to greet the clients
and check them into the database system (between 11:00 – 3:00). Volunteering can be 1 or 2 days a week, 1 or
2 days a month, or on a standby substitute list. You can even form your own team of folks and
have your own day of the month. We are
very flexible. If interested, please
call Judy, our Schedule Coordinator, at (916) 204-8610.
Our major capital
improvement, the Walk-in Cooler/Freezer project, has slowly progressed. After working out a power solution with SMUD
we had the electrical contractor, Capital Electric, proceed with the equipment
and wiring improvements to the building.
The work was completed and bought off with approval from the City of Citrus
Heights building department. We then met
with the general contractor to start the civil and foundation work and were
told they had a 10 – 12 month backlog before they could do our work. We had been unable to get onto their schedule
until we had the electrical solution.
So we looked for another contractor, which we found in the beginning of
October. As we were reviewing the work,
the northern California fires raged.
This immediately dried up any excess labor pool and the contractors’
ability to put on additional crews. Now
we are waiting for the beginning of the year to continue our path forward. God has an amazing way of teaching humility,
patience, and trust. And we do trust Him
in all things.
We have started working
with additional food closet agencies in our area. Our working together is called NFAN –
Neighborhood Food Access Network. Sacramento County has been divided into 13
such networks. Within the Citrus
Heights, Fair Oaks, Carmichael, Antelope, and North Highlands area we have
identified at least 14 agencies. These range from some open once or twice a
month to ours which is 5 days a week. Some
provide cooked meals and others provide emergency groceries like we do. Some of the objectives we have are to identify
and expand times of distributions to help those in need and how to reach
additional food insecure people. Also,
we will try to have improved pickup and deliveries of food sources to eliminate
redundancy in labor and resources. We
have met together twice and are encouraged in going forward.
Our praises and prayers:
- Praise for Gods abundant grace in supplying all of our needs.
- Praise for sufficient volunteers to meet all the needs
- Praise for support and encouragement from all supporters
- Pray for continued donations of product and finances
- Pray for strength, health, and additional volunteers.
- Pray for solutions to cooler / freezer project
- Pray for NFAN 3 as we continue
to meet together
Thank you once again.
Merry Christmas and Happy New year.
May the God of
Hope continue to richly bless you for your continued support and prayers.
The Board
Sunrise Christian Food Ministry
|