Too much food?

This month's food distribution was a huge success! It was a combined effort headed up by one of the local churches, along with donations from Pastor Andy and some local kids who spent a day picking apples, a youth group in Boise who did a can food drive, and a semi-truck full of fresh and frozen food.

We estimated it was about 12,000 pounds of food, which pretty much filled up the room where we did the food distribution.

It was rather over-whelming to sort it all, but we had lots of volunteers.

140 families came and were each given about 2 boxes of food. In a community where people are choosing between paying electric bills or buying propane, it is a huge blessing for them to have food for their families.

We also received some random donations, such as a bunch of clothes...

I also heard there are 70 cords of wood to be donated next week. In case you are wondering 2 cords of wood fit in the back of a pick-up truck. A couple years ago we split 18 cords of wood over the course of 2 months...it was a lot of wood...

Where has the time gone?

Our first Food Distribution was a success. We gave out about 100 boxes filled with enough food to feed 2 people for a week. There were 4 boxes left over, which is perfect. We are expecting bigger turn outs at the word spreads, so our goal for the Sept 15 distribution is 150 boxes.

The schools on our Idaho campus start next week, and I am super excited!! Things are so different than what I expected when I returned to Idaho this spring, but good differences.

Even in the past weeks plans have changed more. I was going to be the administrative assistant to the school leader, but now I am going to be a student as well. There's a few of us in that confusing staff/student role...it keeps things interesting. And 2 of those people were students with me here in Idaho 3 years ago, and I'm super excited for them to return and us to do this school together.

This coming week is filled with meetings, working on the budget, schedules, bios, and printing and putting together the student notebooks.

Then next weekend we move up to the camp. Even though it's easier to stay up there during the week, we fully intend to spend weekends in town at our house...

EMERGENCY Food Distribution

Right now that's what we've got going on here in Cascade once a month. This week I found out the "emergency" is that if the Boise Food Bank doesn't get rid of the food NOW, it will expire/spoil/ rot...or maybe it already started...
So we receive random stuff to sort through - apples, corn, zucchini - and then give away to people in need in our community. People's pet pigs and worms also benefit as the recipients of food gone bad. So everybody is happy, except for the youth group volunteers who are not big fans of touching (or seeing) rotting food...
Those who help with the food distribution also get some food...I'm not sure what everyone else did with their 4 zucchini, 10 ears of corn, and 20 apples, but if we don't eat faster, ours are going to cause an emergency in our fridge...

This is why we are in the process of starting a non-profit organization, the "Cascade Food Bank." Then the Boise Food Bank will send us more practical food, twice a month. Food people can use to make actual meals...although the pets worms may starve...