Last Friday night, I would imagine many of us fell asleep with visions of snowflakes floating in our heads...only to wake to a cold, rainy, blustery morning. Questions arose right away. Are the roads icy? Is the Pantry open? To put it all to rest, if we are not open on the regular schedule, we will notify WLOS of our closing and asked to be included in the scroll across the bottom of the TV screen. Several neighbors were already in line when the early birds arrived at 6:00 am to open up.

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Happy New Year! Haven't updated our newsletter since last year! Our pantry was filled with fourteen eager "Inventory Volunteers" on Day TWO of 2024. Thanks to pantry coffee and a box of Ava's scrumptious doughnuts inventory was completed in record time. With pen, paper, and scale on hand every bar of soap to bag of chips was weighed, recorded, and available for our neighbors this past Saturday. Appreciate the prep work of our Kim's with data bases, numbered shelves, and logistics all sorted out for efficient information gathering.

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‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through the pantry…not a volunteer was stirring only a freezer a whirring....One week later....."What should my thankful eyes observe," but a Manna delivery truck loaded with 7,500 pounds of food. Over the next two Saturdays, we will distribute these food items to our neighbors. Some of the items we received included fresh produce of eggplant, spaghetti squash, and onions. Also in our delivery was shelf food of pineapple, pasta, and peanut butter.

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Joy to the World...The words to this hymn are resonating in a loop in my head. What comfort and joy it was on Saturday morning to welcome two shifts of volunteers and 183 families representing 668 individuals!  Twelve new families became part of our pantry community, too. Neighbors shopped in The Emergency Food Assistance Program room, gathered regular food items from the pantry, and collected their holiday meal as they exited the building. Thrivent donated fruitcakes and Bimbos donated lemon and cherry pies. Lois offered a blanket from Manual Woodworkers and elves were distributing candy canes to one and all.

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Food, Santa's Toy Shop, and Brrrrrrrr...Yes a cold blustery morning with a pantry filled with volunteers, food, and toys!  The 150 neighbors were warmly welcomed representing 600 family members and 13 new families. Our volunteers arrived early to "man their stations" and share in the holiday spirit with our neighbors. Lois throughout the year, stores the many generous donations from our community and individuals to provide a Santa's toyshop visit.  When they say a picture is worth a 1000 words...the look on our neighbors children's faces says it all. Our sincere gratitude goes out to donors near and far in appreciation for these toys.

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This time of year all kinds of merry music is on the Radio... like "Here Comes Santa Claus.. Here Comes Santa Claus.. Right down Santa Claus Lane." This past Saturday, a sleigh (Christ School Van) arrived filled with food and students. These young men went right to work unloading their food donation and assisting with the morning neighbor distribution. On Monday, First Bank arrived with food that filled two shopping carts. Several bags of personal care products were delivered by a group of retired educators from Kappa Conclave.

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You may have heard about The Elf on the Shelf, a picture book for children where the Elf hides in people's homes to watch over holiday events. Our Pantry has its own Elf who watches over our Pantry. It's Elf on a Rack, a food rack. Our Elf has a sack and is asking for a food item for his holiday Sack. Items will be distributed on Saturdays to our neighbors between 8:00-11:00. Please help our Elf on the Rack fill his Food Sack.

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Volunteers, Mayor Preston Blakley leading the Food Drive from the Fletcher Community, Thrivent, Scouts, Lion's Club Vision Screening Members, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy Interns, and generous supporters from our area are the THANKS in THANSGIVING!  Because of your kindness by volunteering your time or monetary donations, we provided 229 neighbors with 3 1/2 days of food and a Thanksgiving Meal this past Saturday. These neighbors represent 826 family members and 17 new families.

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"Happy Friendsgiving! Because of the kindness from the pantry community, we are able to offer our neighbors the items for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Generous donations of stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, gravy, and monetary donations allowed us to purchase turkeys, green beans, potatoes, rolls, and butter. Distribution of these items will be this Saturday between 8:00-11:00. It's all hands on deck as volunteers will assist our neighbors for their 3 1/2 days of food.

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Reflections from the fall are numerous.  Students volunteered from the Global Lens Club at Hendersonville High School to the Day of Caring students from Christ School.  We welcomed Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Pharmacy Interns, Lion's Club, a Deerfield constituency of enthusiastic weekly volunteers,  ArdenWoods residents who sponsored a successful Hunger Walk, introduced bulk ordering ensuring that we meet our goal to provide eleven meals a week, and celebrated with our volunteers  at a Garden and Pantry Appreciation cookout...just to mention a few highlights.

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When you think of celebrity chefs, Martha Stewart and Paula Dean may come to mind. We too have Martha, Linda, and Joe who are preparing tasty recipes from items available to our neighbors in the pantry. This past Saturday Chef Martha prepared a mouth-watering burrito filled with sautéed veggies and an egg. Girl Scouts from Troop 2984 and 2987 prepared a dozen "Birthday Bags" for our neighbors filled with cake mix, icing, candles, plates napkins, and candles.

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Want to keep up with the Pantry and Garden? Then we have one word for you...Roller Skates. There is so much activity preparing for the neighbor food distribution on Saturday that sauntering along will leave you in the dust. (Only kidding-us over 60 are keeping up pretty well.) On Sunday afternoon, Blue Ghost Brewery supported a fundraiser for the Pantry. The band, Steady State, offered music and fellowship time for attendees' from our community.

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Many of you may be putting your home gardens "to bed" for the winter but not at the Lord's Acre of Fletcher. Our seedlings are almost ready to be planted in the raised beds in our hoop house. Meanwhile, our raised beds in the hoop house worked so well deterring weeds that we will replace the rows between the trellis and hoop house with raised beds. Over a dozen hardy souls built 28 boxes 2' x 12" x 10 for raised beds in an hour on Saturday. Doug Kearney, our Garden Master, shared that the raised beds will season over the winter and be installed this spring. Many thanks to our volunteers who helped on Saturday afternoon...Scout Troop 91, Fletcher UMC, Nativity Lutheran, and a pantry client.

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Calling all volunteers! We are having a Thank You Cookout for all of our LAF Garden and Pantry volunteers in the garden on October 26 from 4-6:30. Gather in the garden for burgers, dogs, chips, slaw, and dessert. Bring a drink and a chair.  We'll gather around the campfire to celebrate a record year in the garden and pantry.  Music will be provided by the Calvary musicians.

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Are we helping to reduce Food Insecurity in our community? How do we discern this simple yet complex question?  We can look at our data. Two weeks ago 155 households shopped for food, and this past week we welcomed 134 households with twelve new families. Fred reported that for the month 670 families visited our pantry representing 2,486 individuals. We are so blessed that you — our community — donated 21,418 pounds of food and non-food to the pantry.

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Morning had definitely broken as Chefs Dan and Martha were scurrying around the Parish Hall kitchen firing up the grills and preparing the unique Vining pancake batter. Meanwhile scouts from Troop 61, volunteers, students from Hendersonville High School began arriving to assist with food distribution and the Pancake Breakfast. As our "neighbors" arrived they were offered breakfast at the Parish Hall: pancakes, bacon, milk and coffee. While Fr. J., Todd, Dick, and Troop 61  grilled the pancakes, Tom and Kim were offering hot pancakes and crispy bacon to the neighbors. 

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Last Thursday night two of our garden volunteer families and other volunteers filled Doug's truck full of freshly harvested produce for distribution on Saturday. Oh...if you could have seen the delight in the neighbors’ eyes as they filled their carts with collards, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Because of the help of volunteers that we have in our community, our garden has produced 50% more produce this year. After the abundant amount of produce gathered last week, it was a blessing that the Day of Caring at Christ School was last Wednesday.

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You heard it first here! This year over a ton of produce was harvested from the garden and now over a gallon of raw honey extracted from our two beehives. Our honey is like other raw honey, it contains no preservatives and thanks to Doug, our Garden Master, it comes with an official LAF label, bee charm, and honey dipper.  Being on the "Quality Control Committee" has its perks! Yummmmmy honey!

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You can "BEE" sure there's lots going on at the LAF and Pantry!  Just this past week, Garden Master Doug Kearney extracted honey from the hives leaving plenty of honey  to hold the bees over the winter months. Doug reminds us that the honey is unique to our area. Pollination comes from local vegetation in our vicinity. Because of extremely generous donations of fresh produce from the Fletcher Rotary Club (corn & tomatoes), Tractor Farms (corn, potatoes, cucumber, squash, tomatoes, apples, micro greens, and herbs), Flavor-First (tomatoes, peppers, and corn) and LAF (garden-beans and tomatoes), it was a bountiful week of fresh produce.

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Word on the Street....is that the Calvary Episcopal Church Food Pantry is a "Happening  Place!" Just last Saturday, thanks to the many donations of school supplies, an entire food shelf was filled with enough supplies for all of our pantry neighbor's children.  Bette, a retired Buncombe County School teacher, helped neighbors select items appropriate for their grade level. Conscious Alliance and Orchard Valley have partnered with us to feed families in our community experiencing food insecurity. Their iconic ALLIANCE of brands, bands, artists, and fans use their time and talents to make it all happen. They donated cases of trail mix in four flavors filled with fruit and nuts. Perfect for lunch boxes or snack time.

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