Happy Friday!
We had another productive morning at Gold Crown Foundation!
Kelly and Deb corralled last week’s packed bags and the carrots and onions we packed on Wednesday. We sent these items off to the schools and then packed EXACTLY 1200 bags. 700 were from the totes order and an additional 500 from what we had on hand and what Deb picked up in an agency order.
According to the Feeding America formula that’s 1 lb/food = 1.2 meals, at 9 lbs per bag we bagged 12,960 meals today.
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We did run out of plastic grocery bags so we used about 200 of the canvas totes. Thank you to Kelly for running back to the house to get them, and thank you Beth for getting the donation.
I have a message into Coleman Gibbons with Source Office Supply to get more plastic bags locally for less than Amazon is charging us. I have about 600 so between those and the canvas bags we at least have enough for next Friday’s totes order. I will also try to get to King Soopers this week to request a donation.
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We had a big group of volunteers! All of the soldiers were there and about 7 “regular” folks, plus two of my friends and their kids came to help (they really enjoyed crushing the boxes for recycling.) They made quick work of bagging and I had to scramble to keep the tables full!
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We are on schedule to get two more tote orders next Friday, picked up and delivered by Jeremy at 10 am. We currently have enough green beans, pears, stewed tomatoes and rice to make about 400 additional bags.
We need more peanut butter/chicken/tuna, beans and pasta to round out the bags. We used all the peanut butter and canned beans that came from the salvage boxes Beth sorted yesterday. We still have plenty of snacks, not including the 2000 Jiff bars still at the house.
I spoke to two of the soldiers about the chili recipe bag idea. They both agreed that chili is more of a Tex-Mex idea, not a universally Hispanic meal and that they thought we should just pair the stewed tomatoes with rice or pasta. Again, ultimately as long as we’re providing rice and beans, we’re meeting a need.
Barb mentioned getting Spanish rice from CFK; I think we could do another round of bags with their oatmeal packets or Mac and cheese. When I picked up the order on Monday, Ken said their production is way down due to having to limit their volunteer numbers.
Barb mentioned she’d set up an account with Sysco. I’d be interested in how their bulk chicken/tuna/peanut butter prices compare to FBR, and if they have any jelly in plastic jars/squeezable bottles. If we could, just go ahead and order 1-2K cans of tuna and jars of PB. It certainly would be easier to get one big shipment than to have to order it every week.
Note – we used about 700 bags of dried beans to supplement the totes, then I sent the rest with Deb for Dolores – maybe 200 bags? We flattened and saved the sturdy boxes the beans came in to reuse the next time we have bulk beans.
The next totes order will get us through May 15, so we’ll bag enough to deliver May 22 which is the last day of “school”. We have Gold Crown and a semi-commitment from at least SOME of the soldiers to keep going through June. [I can get a whole Cub Scout Pack AND Boy Scout Troop to volunteer this summer if need be].
Have a great weekend!
Susan, Jeffco Eats Current Head of Friday Packing Group
