May 22, 2024

Saturday, May 18th was another busy morning in the pantry as we served 133 Households comprising of 479 individuals.  We welcomed 4 new Households having 20 members. We continue to show increases over last year. Through 20 weeks, Households served have increased 7% and individual counts within those Households have increased 10% compared to 2023.

Our young volunteers Elliott and Amelia Stay were busy going through boxes of assorted food staples and neatly arranging and stacking the products.  They even found time for a quick game of frisbee in the parking lot.

Thank you Carol Romine for organizing the Arden Woods Retirement Community trip to the pantry and garden.  Fourteen participants enjoyed an informative tour delivered by Martha Vining.  The residents donated over 20 pounds of food and gave a generous donation of $1,110 for purchasing food.

Last week 68 pounds of collards and 20 pounds of spinach were harvested from the pantry garden and were available for our pantry neighbors on Saturday. Fresh, nutritious, organic vegetables from  “The Lord’s Acre, Fletcher” are often a preferred choice.

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.

From the Executive Committee,

- Kim Potthoff 

The Lord’s Acre, Fletcher, May 21, 2024 – This Thursday will be our last 4:30 work session. Beginning May 30, we will start meeting at 7:00 p.m. because of longer and warmer summer days.

Pollinator Garden Going In  Nativity Lutheran member Michael Schruckmayr will be setting out plants in the new perennial garden during our Thursday evening session this week. It would be OK if you wanted to sneak over and help him. The perennial garden is Michael’s Eagle Scout project.

Spring Crops Yield Big  Thanks in part to our new hoop house providing us an early start to 2024, and hearty volunteers, we have already harvested almost 600 pounds of vegetables this year, including lettuce, collards, beets, and spinach chard. The photo shows that our summer crops, tomatoes and peppers, are off to a good start. We already have tomatoes the size of tangerines!

- Doug Kearney