Hi. I am going to post some events that are coming up at the Food Pantry where I work. It is a fun time of year and I hope you can participate with us!

At the left is a flyer you can click on, this flyer lists items needed for our pantry at Open Door for the summer months of June/July.
The list of food on the flyer is what we have been lacking from the purchases from Gleaners Food Bank; we pay .10/lb for food. Since the area has such a high unemployment rate, Gleaners has needed to supply a higher demand, which means our order from them may not be filled totally. If people are inclined to give cash/checks this is also ppreciated.

June 20,2009 is the annual Julie Run/Walk at Central High School. If you are interested please go to http://www.opendooroutreachcenter.com/ you may register for the race and pay the registration fee online also.

During later part of July thru August we will be collecting School Supplies: 3 Ring Binders, High Lighter Markers, Glue sticks, Crayolas, Markers, and Rulers. We are set on Liquid glue, pens and pencils (last count of pens and pencils was around 5,000-10,000!). We are asking churches, agencies, businesses and individuals to donate however they are led. If they would like the opportunity to donate gift cards to Payless shoes, Meijer’s, Kmart, and Wal-Mart, Target, JcPenney or Kohl's this would give parents the opportunity to shop for an outfit for their child (ren).

We have a volunteer luncheon coming up soon. We are also in need of monies, for this event. If your group would be interested in helping with funding for that this is another area of need for the center as we like to recognize our volunteers.

We also celebreate Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter.
Thanksgiving we supply families with a turkey or turkey breast and other food items for a festive dinner. At Christmas time we have found that most agnecies sponsor families. Our agency however provides only seniors as we feel that seniors a forgotten group at this time of year. We provide eligible seniors with a nice Christmas dinner, a gift card and other small gift items. We are also looking for a few reliable volunteers who would be able to adopt a family for Christmas; we could supply the family name, and children/ages. At Easter time we provide our client families with a dinner, Easter candies, and books for the children in the family.

Mid-December we collect, coats, new/or gently used, hats, gloves, boots, snow pants. Schools in the area call to let us know of the needs they have within their school, we are able to provide sizes when we have them. I remember one year we needed coats for high school students who were in need. Maybe your group could cover that age group. All winter apparel are given to the clients throughout the winter as they request, if we have it we give it, if we don’t have it we figure it out.

Now...if there is something else that you might have an idea to suggest please let me know. We ask that everyone keep us in mind and whatever is raised as monetarily or donated food/clothing wise, we appreciate all that is done! We and our clients are so grateful for all donations we recieve!

If there are other groups you know of who would be interested in any of these ideas please pass the info along.

The only items we do not accept for donations are: baby car seats, computers/monitors/mouse etc, and furniture, TVs (As we have such limited space and baby car seat requirements change so frequently we can’t accept them).

Blessings to you! Tammie Kay Fenn


http://www.opendooroutreachcenter.org/

Our site has information of volunteer opportunities, Julie Walk/Run 2009, Outhouse Golf Outing 2009, and information on our resale store for the public, we also use donated clothing for our clients.