Journal entry for May 4th...... First harvest of the season at the Lord's Acre of Fletcher! Volunteers traveled up and down the rows of collards snipping the tender leaves and gently placing them in containers for Saturday distribution. Fifty-four pounds of collards were gathered and stored in the pantry until Saturday morning. Our leaf lettuce will fill our baskets in about a week and there will be more collards ready. Herbs, donated from the French Broad Garden Club, fill our raised beds by the pergola. Chef Martha uses them often to flavor the recipes she prepares for the neighbors on Saturday mornings.

Speaking of the garden, we hope you'll join us on May 16th at 5:00 for a community gathering to dedicate the Hoop House and Bless the Garden as part of Rogation Day. We will meet in the garden for the blessing and dedication then enjoy a cookout with music by Kim, Audy, and Joe. All we ask is that you bring a chair and you'll a have a chance to meet the volunteers from across our community and area churches who help weekly in the pantry and garden and enjoy some good old fashion fellowship.

Lois expresses a sincere appreciation to the many volunteers who helped make the Annual Rummage and Plant Sale a huge success. Items were donated daily from 9:00 to 4:00. People were lined up way before the door opened at 8:00 on Saturday morning. Lois also thanks the community for their part in finding a "home" for the many treasures and plants.

We recognize Renee for her year-long internship at the Pantry. She is part of the Blue Ridge Service Corps, a program placing interns in non-profit agencies for a year. She has had the opportunity to "walk in our shoes" and learn all the aspects to operate an efficient pantry. We wish her well as her journey continues.

On Saturday we welcomed 132 families representing 490 individuals and registered five new families. City Bakery donated loaves of bread. Other donated items were Ingles- bags of snacks for children, (raisins, soup, applesauce, and poptarts) Bimbos-snacks and bread, Wal-Mart and Big Lots, misc items, and MilkCo-milk. Other produce this week included collards, apples, onions, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes.

On behalf of the executive committee, thank you to our volunteers and our area churches, civic groups, local merchants, and families for all you do to feed our community helping to reduce food insecurity. We thank you for your food and monetary donations. We are able to feed our neighbors 3 and 1/2 days of food or 11 meals.

Kathy Noyes knoyes372@gmail.com

May 10, 2023