Thanks to all of you unnamed shoppers, and deliverers, practical assistants, and to our drive coordinators Mary Hayden & Linda Wiseman & Michael Nazareth for coordinating this drive!   And, special thanks to those more than 30 persons who assisted with moving bags and loading the delivery cars: 

On Sunday, February 20, 2011, you assisted St. Francis Parish in delivering
434  bags of groceries for the Food Drive.
Here is where they went:
  127 bags went to Hope Center, Ypsilanti;
  125 bags went to Northside Community Center run by Catholic Social Services;
  124 bags went to St. Clare Episcopal/Temple Beth Emeth, Ann Arbor;
    58 bags went to Corpus Christi Parish, Detroit;
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  434 bags TOTAL delivered.

The Back Door Food Pantry at St. Clare Episcopal/Temple Beth Emeth, Ann Arbor, distributes between 100 to 125 bags of groceries every week. The average number of families served per week is about 70 families.     Thank you again to St. Francis for organizing the food drive.  Rachid Hatem, Back Door Food Pantry- Co-chair.

Thank you to St. Francis Parish for the donation on Sunday. We are grateful for St. Francis’ continued support of Hope’s Food Programs.                The Hope Food Pantry serves an average of 60 households a week (250 per month). We are planning to add an additional 20 appointments per week in the coming months.  The minimum number of bags each household receives is 3 bags of non-perishable goods, a bag of produce, and meat. Daily bread is available in the lobby for everyone at all times.  As the household size increases, so does the amount of food we give.                      In 2010 we filled 2,994 requests for food and gave out more than 14,000 bags of groceries.     In addition to the food bank, we also have a personal hygiene and household item closet (Care and Share Closet) to cover the gap of basic necessities that cannot be purchased with food stamps. These are items like diapers, toilet paper, soap, dish liquid, ect. Last year we filled more than 3,700 requests for personal hygiene items and gave out nearly 16,500 items.  The Care and Share closet in one of our most utilized programs.            The food pantry has regular distribution three days a week by appointment. Hope is the only true “emergency” food bank in Washtenaw County. This means we are open to serve those who are in need of emergency food Monday-Saturday and cannot wait for an appointment or the regular distribution hours. We receive referrals from other agencies.                Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need additional information. Again, we sincerely appreciate St. Francis and the support you give to Hope.  Peace and blessings-  Melissa M. Burkhart, Food Programs Coordinator, Hope Medical Clinic, Inc

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Thank you for the generous offer of groceries. St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Ypsilanti, gets, provided from Food Gatherers, enough pre-boxed food to care for up to 70 families a week. The pantry at the current time is full from donations made by our own parishioners.