Dear Pantry Team: The following is our November 2022 Monthly Status

Pantry Building Expansion Project:

1. Recent items: As previously reported, the Portland Planning Board required significant revisions to our overall church site plan.  The plan was revised and resubmitted.  The Board reviewed the plan, along with peer reviewers.  While the updated site plan was found to be generally acceptable, there are some additions needing attention, and are now being worked on.

Other Items:

1. SFP distributed and delivered 231 Thanksgiving dinners throughout Cumberland County.  127 dinner boxes were built in our church by the Spectrum Communications Call Center, and 104 dinner boxes were donated by Cheverus High School.   The total Thanksgiving distribution weight came in at 10,000 lbs., accounting for 5 tons of dinners distributed, with a retail economic impact to meal insecure families of $25,000.  At 231 dinner boxes, this was our biggest Thanksgiving dinner distribution ever.
2. Food Drives:
   1. 11/04-Portland Water district
   1. 11/11-Maine Med Radiology Week
   1. 11/17-SFP Turkey & Sides: 127 turkeys (107 from SCC)
   1. 11/18-SGC Engineering
   1. 11/18-University of New England
   1. 11/18-Better Strength Gym
   1. 11/22-Cheverus High School, (104 dinners + additional turkeys & sides)
   1. 11/30-Sysco Food Products (36 frozen turkeys)
   1. 12/01-Spectrum Call Center
3. Client Service Activity for November:
   1. We served 470 client grocery/dinner boxes.  Food intake was 16,974 lbs. 
   1. We are still on pace for 71-72 total tons distributed this year.
4. Upcoming events:
   1. On 12/15 Peapod Digital will provide volunteers to build our Christmas dinner boxes. 
   1. On 12/17 Al Withee and I will transport Christmas dinners to Washington County. 

Doug Horner, Director

Dear Pantry Team: Stroudwater Food Pantry Monthly Status

Pantry Building Expansion Project:

• On July 12^th members of the Stroudwater Pantry Management Board met with the Portland Planning Board.  It was a public hearing to assess the SFP conditional approval request to build a new pantry building on Church property.  The city Planning Board approved our request for a building.
• Our most recent document submission to city Planning requires a significantly updated church site plan.  As a result of several conversations with Planning, a marked-up version of the original document was forwarded to our engineer so he can create a new site plan for the city.  Submission of this plan will be another step in moving our building project forward through city Planning and on to the Permitting and Inspections Board.

Other Items:

1. In July your Stroudwater Food Pantry built and distributed 504 boxes and bags of groceries to meal insecure individuals and families, in both Cumberland and Washington counties.
2. On 6/16 Angie, Carol, Jean, and Barbara-Ann built 200 Roadside Assistance food bags.   They are downstairs in the common area for people to take.  Additionally, on 7/16 Angie hosted a Kindness Walk at the Back Cove, where RAP bags were given to participants for distribution.
3.  On 7/22 we delivered frozen turkeys, hams, chickens and non-perishable pantry supplies to the Milestone Men’s Recovery Center on India street in Portland.
4. Food purchases – Late July we purchased the following food from the Good Shepherd:  20 cases of spaghetti sauce, 50 cases PB, 8 cases of cereal, 10 cases of Tuna and 8 frozen turkeys (yes, it’s time to start preparing for Thanksgiving Dinners in November!)
5. This month Stroudwater Food Pantry celebrates its seventh year of operations!  We opened our doors on August 12^th, 2015. 

— Doug

Hi Team – For week ending Sunday March 27^th, your Stroudwater Food Pantry served 154 families, and provided groceries to a total of 421 people. 

Our supermarket food rescue pickups, and food donations, totaled 1,846 lbs.  Volunteers for this week included Adam, Albert, Ally, Amy & Jake, Cam, Dave W, Ellen & Fred, Gary, Jean, Karlene, Kelly, Lois, Martha & Al, Michelle and myself. 

Thank you everyone who volunteered this week!

To learn more about your Stroudwater Food Pantry, follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stroudwaterfoodpantry/

Hi Team – For week ending Sunday March 13^th, your Stroudwater Food Pantry served 74 families, and provided groceries to a total of 176 people. 

Our supermarket food rescue pickups, and food donations, totaled 1,700 lbs.  Volunteers for this week included Adam, Amy/Tom/Lyla/Claire, Cam, Dave W, Ellen P, Fred, Gary, Jean, Karlene, Kelly, Laura, Martha & Al, Marcie, Michelle, and myself. 

Thank you everyone who volunteered this week!

To learn more about your Stroudwater Food Pantry, follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stroudwaterfoodpantry/

Hi Team – For week ending Sunday March 6^th, your Stroudwater Food Pantry served 81 families, and provided groceries to a total of 229 people. 

Our supermarket food rescue pickups, and food donations, totaled 1,765 lbs.  Volunteers for this week included Adam, Albert, Cam, Fred, Gary, Jean, Karlene, Kelly, Martha & Al, Michelle, and myself.  Thank you everyone who volunteered this week!

To learn more about your Stroudwater Food Pantry, follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stroudwaterfoodpantry/

Hi Team – This week your Stroudwater Food Pantry served 86 families, and provided groceries to a total of 201 people. 

Our supermarket food rescue pickups, and food donations, totaled 2,643 lbs.  Volunteers for this week included Adam, Albert, Amy W., Dave, Dennis, Fred, Gary, Jean, Karlene, Kelly, Laura, Lila, Lois, Marcie, Martha & Al, Michelle, Tammy, Tom, and myself.

This week’s big Friday snow storm impacted our weekend pantry operations, but our hardy core of volunteers took it in stride!  Our Friday team drove through the snowfall to pick up food from our supermarkets, then sorted and put it away.  Our Sunday team cranked up our assembly line and used all the food to build, deliver, and distribute a whopping 86 boxes of pantry groceries!  Thank you everyone who volunteered this week, and for the amazing job you did to help feed our community of meal insecure families! — Doug

To learn more about your Stroudwater Food Pantry, follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stroudwaterfoodpantry/

Hi Team – This week your Stroudwater Food Pantry served 100 families, providing groceries to a total of 289 people. 

Our supermarket food rescue pickups, and food donations, totaled 6,394 lbs.  Volunteers for this week included Adam, Albert, Amy W., Chad, Dave, Dennis, Fred, Gary, Jean, Karlene, Kathleen, Kelly, Laura, Lila, Lois, Marcie, Martha & Al, Michelle, Roy, Stefan, Tammy and myself.

 Thank you everyone who volunteered this week!

To learn more about your Stroudwater Food Pantry, follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stroudwaterfoodpantry/

Hi Team – For the week ending 12/05 your Stroudwater Food Pantry served 123 families and provided groceries to a total of 295 people. 

Our supermarket food rescue pickups, and food donations totaled 6,119 lbs.  Volunteers for this week included Adam, Albert, Amy & Jake, Amy W., Ellen & Fred, Gary, Jean, Karlene, Kelly, Laura, Lois, Marcie, Martha & Al, Michelle, Rena, and myself.

Thank you everyone who volunteered this week! — Doug

To learn more about your Stroudwater Food Pantry, follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stroudwaterfoodpantry/

Hi Team – This report covers the week ending 11/21 and Thanksgiving Weekend.  During this time your Stroudwater Food Pantry served 307 families and provided groceries and dinners to a total of 797 people. 

Our supermarket food rescue pickups, food donations and Thanksgiving dinner boxes totaled 6,725 lbs.  Volunteers for this week included Adam, Albert, Amy & Jake, Dennis, Ellen & Fred, Erin, Gary, Greg, Jean, Karlene, Kathleen, Kayla, Kelly, Laura, Lois, Martha & Al, Michelle, Rena, and myself.

This month we were graced by community partners who organized food drives and made donations of non-perishable food.  Our food drive partners included Maine Medical Center, the UNE Student Occupational Therapy Organization, the Higher Calling motorcycle club, and SGC Engineering.  Thank you for your generous food donations!

And, once again we were very blessed by the sponsors of our Thanksgiving Dinner distribution!  We received complete Thanksgiving dinner baskets and meals, plus additional frozen turkeys, from Cheverus High School, the Portland SHAW’S Market in Westgate, the Portland Fire Department, and our very own church family at Stroudwater Christian Church!  In total we were able to distribute 115 complete Thanksgiving dinners, and an additional 90 frozen turkeys and pork roasts!      

November is our busiest time of year, a time when we both gather and build Thanksgiving dinner boxes, and distribute, and home deliver, both complete dinners and frozen turkeys.  We provide groceries throughout the month, and we also lay plans for Christmas dinners.  Above all, it is a time when volunteers rise to the monumental challenge of doing what it takes to make Thanksgiving a special holiday for families throughout southern Maine.  Thank you everyone who volunteered this month; you brought the joy of Thanksgiving to families in need, making their holiday special, each in your own way. God Bless you all!!

–Doug

To learn more about your Stroudwater Food Pantry, follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stroudwaterfoodpantry/

Hi Team – For the week ending 10/31 your Stroudwater Food Pantry served 66 families and provided groceries to a total of 154 people.  40 of the families received groceries through our Last Mile home delivery program. 

Our supermarket food rescue pickups, food donations and purchases totaled 2,803 lbs.  Volunteers for this week included Adam, Albert, Amy & Jake, Dave Weeks, Ellen & Fred, Jean, Kelly, Laura, Lois, Martha & Al, Marcie, Michelle, Wayne, and myself.

October was a long month, with five Fridays of food pickups and five Sundays of grocery distributions. Families either came to, or were home delivered by, your Stroudwater Food Pantry on 350 occasions.  Pantry volunteers served a total of 298 hours this month; Thank You everyone who spent so much time serving so many meal-insecure families throughout the long month of October! — Doug

To learn more about your Stroudwater Food Pantry, follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stroudwaterfoodpantry/