May 1, 2024
This Saturday was another busy morning in the pantry as we served 115 Households comprising 420 individuals. We welcomed 5 new Households having 23 members. We continue to show increases over last year. Through 17 weeks Households served have increased 8% and individual counts within those Households have increased 12% compared to 2023.
We had extra help from several enthusiastic teens this Saturday. About a dozen young men from Christ School arrived to help with tasks in the Pantry and in the garden and several students from West Henderson High School also joined us inside the Pantry.
Reminder – May 8th is an important day for the Pantry.
We will be celebrating two milestones as part of Rogation Day.
(1) We will be blessing the pantry garden and celebrating its second anniversary of operation, and
(2) We will also recognize the Fifteenth anniversary of Pantry operation.
The Blessing of the garden will commence at 5PM with a Rogation Day procession starting at the labyrinth. There will be a Celebration Dinner at 6PM in the Parish Hall.
Don’t forget to RSVP if you plan to attend the dinner by signing up on the available sheets in the pantry or emailing welcome@calavryfletcher.org. We need your responses to plan for how many will arrive to share the meal.
On behalf of the Executive Committee, we continue to thank our volunteers and our area churches, civic groups, local merchants, and families for all you do to feed our community by helping to reduce food insecurity. We thank you and appreciate your food and monetary donations.
For The Executive Committee,
Fred Yopps, fyoppsCECFP@gmail.com
Correction from last week’s newsletter: The increase in number of individuals served through 16 weeks was 856, not 7,027.
April 30, 2024, The Lord’s Acre of Fletcher – Big Work Session Thursday (5/2), 4:30 Thanks for so many who turned out last week. Come this week, too! We have lots of peppers to plant in these empty hoop house beds and collards to harvest from the raised beds in the fields. Remember, no experience is necessary. All you need is a willingness to get your hands dirty next to other volunteers willing to do the same.
Pantry Volunteers Pickin Blueberry Blooms Yes, we are picking blueberry BLOOMS so that thirty newly moved plants can put energies into growth this year instead of berries. Thanks to Hendersonville Middle School volunteers for their exacting work.
Garden Prayer I wrote this prayer two years ago for our prayer time in the garden. Rocks were still the biggest harvest from the Lord’s Acre, Fletcher. — Doug
Loving Creator,
We praise you for the opportunity to work in this garden.
May our kneeling in this soil make us humble
so we can be filled with the wonder of growing things.
May our weeding and rock-clearing remind us of weedy and stony places in our life that keep us from making space for you to grow in us.
May our work to bring water to this garden harken to the waters of our baptism,
which continues to bring us nourishment to eternal life.
Bless sore muscles and sweaty brows
because they are small signs of our desire to ensure all people
know the abundance of creation,
and that hunger and injustice have no place where you reign. Amen
--Doug Kearney, wdkearney@gmail.com