FEBRUARY 2024 NEWSLETTER
| “Hold on just a minute, it can’t possibly be February this week.” Anybody else feel like January needs a re-do? Haha! Joking aside, January was a great month with plenty of brainstorming, goal-setting and strategy-talking sessions to make sure we are poised and ready for 2024. Have you ever made a balsamic reduction? Or maple syrup? You start with a whole bunch of something, and reduce it to the most important piece. In both of these food examples, the product you are left with is sweeter and syrupy – flexible but much stronger than what you started with. It is new and different, yet still holds some of those original pieces of what it once was. Leave it to me to come up with a food example that drives home a business strategy point. It’s an accurate explanation of how the bulk of January was spent – working through the whole bunch to boil down a flexible yet strengthened mission. One of our goals for 2024 is to be able to provide a community meal every single week. As we enter 2024, we are continue to trend around 200 meals each week and that number is slowly increasing. We are encouraged by the new faces and spectrum of our community that continue to show up on Wednesdays. We’ve had everything from desperate crisis to city council members on any given week, sitting in the dining room and eating a meal together. It has been beautiful to watch this time-tested concept of community tangibly unfold. It’s time to redefine “need” as a community and society to include not only food-scarcity, but also medical support, crisis, addiction, new baby, celebration of life, mental health, lonliness, loss of job, or countless more. We all have at least one need. All of these needs share a common thread – the need of relationships + community. Does a meal solve a lot of problems? No. Does a meal help to build relationships + community? Yes. Do building relationships + community help to address that list of needs? I believe the answer to that is yes. It may take time, and for some a very long time, but yes. I believe this mission matters to God. I believe he wants us to feed the hungry, help the broken, celebrate the wins, walk alongside the hurting, and everything in between. I believe he wants us to build relationships + community that will help accomplish so much more. And, I believe He will show up when we do our part. Would you prayerfully consider partnering with us in 2024? It’s going to take a bigger team to continue to build strongly and consistently show up in 2024. Whether through financial support, hiring us for catering, sponsoring a weekly meal, helping to connect us to resources, volunteering, or other ideas you have – they will all add up and make a huge impact. Ready to learn more about our weekly meals? Head over to our website to volunteer, donate and more! We are grateful for your willingness to walk alongside us this year as we utilize food to build relationships + community. It’s going to be a great year and I can’t wait to see the story God writes this year! |
