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Dear CRC,
This past week, we celebrated volunteers at our annual Appreciation Event. Our Chief Philanthropy Officer, Chief Operations Officer, and I were able to share just a few highlights of the past year and month, that I'd like to lead with here.
- May 2nd marked the one-year anniversary of our Food Pantry reopening after two years of modified service. Our volunteer leads have remarked that the process has been smooth and our teams have been hardworking and compassionate. In just one year, we served over 3,771 individuals and received and sorted over 600,000 pounds of fresh food!
- For the first time since we started using volunteers to support our Fresh Rescue Truck Drivers, we have all five shifts covered! This is a (literal) heavy lift, and having volunteers provides much needed help picking up fresh, donated food for our Food Pantry.
- Our CRC Tea volunteers donated a record number of volunteer hours this year - over 1000 hours, to plan and put on a heartfelt and successful fundraiser.
- Resale Store Sales are up, in large part due to the hard work and the consistent volunteer support at the store, especially in Encinitas. Sales at the stores provide 17% of CRC's budgeted revenue. Another fun fact: the stores receive on average, 380 donations in a week!
Last year, 17,847 volunteer hours were donated, valued at $634,639. Our development team does pretty well with fundraising, but it would be incredibly difficult if we needed to raise those funds to increase our staffing. CRC could not do the work we do without our volunteers! Thank you!
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Warmly,
Sara Rosenbaum, CVA
CRC Volunteer Manager
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On Saturday, May 13th, 41 CRC volunteers came out to participate in the USPS "Stamp Out Hunger" event! Postal Carriers all across the country collect bags of food and donate them to local charities. CRC is the recipient of food donated on the Solana Beach and the Encinitas routes.
Groups like Target, TVIA, SDA Water polo team and the Encinitas Rotary Club, along with individuals, came out to sort over 10,950 pounds of food (for comparison, in 2022 we received 2,100 pounds of food!). Thank you to the volunteers who worked so hard to organize the donations for our warehouse, and to all of our local residents who donated food to what the USPS calls "the largest all-volunteer one-day food collection effort in the nation."
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Volunteer Appreciation Event | |
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CRC Staff had the privilege of hosting our annual Volunteer Appreciation Event at Coastal Roots Farm on May 11th! The theme was "Volunteers Make the World Brighter," and we created a little pop-up CRC "Makers Market" where volunteers could make fun projects while learning more about their impact and value to our mission.
Thank you to everyone who came out to that! A HUGE thank you to our volunteer planning team, Amie DeFrain, Janet Lawless-Christ, and Karin Kloehn for the behind (and in-front-of) - the - scenes work on the event. And to our donors: Lazy Acres, Trader Joes, Dwellings by JoyWorks, Big 5, Old Spaghetti Factory, Seacoast Church, Lee and Associates (Mike Abernathy and Marie Lampone), Always Optimistic, Best Pizza and Brew, and Stronghold Jiu-Jitsu.
For all of our volunteers, check out the appreciation video we shared at the event!
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The Oceanside Kiwanis Club welcomed Volunteer Manager Sara Rosenbaum and the April Volunteer of the Month recipient representative to their May meeting. CRC was able to share the many ways that our programs serve the community and especially the work we do that supports children.
A plaque was presented to volunteer Ricka Sprunk in honor of the work she and the Tea committee did to raise funds and awareness.
The Kiwanis mission is to improve the lives of children, one community at a time.
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Congratulations to CRC's Volunteer of the Month: Cole Wells
Cole moved to Encinitas in 2020, and found it was difficult to get involved in the things he cared most about due to the pandemic. As soon as he was able, he organized for his high school water polo team to volunteer at the Stamp Out Hunger event, in both 2022 and this year. Cole also coordinated his team to volunteer at the Holiday Baskets Program at Target this past December.
Cole recently applied to be part of the pilot program Youth Advisory Board, and is looking to learn more about the complex issues surrounding hunger and homelessness in his community. He is a leader among his peers and is genuinely motivated to be part of the work that we do. Thank you Cole for your support of CRC and the many ways you impact the world around you!
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Applications Will Be on Hold June and July | General Volunteer Applications will be on hold during the summer months of June and July. Unless directed to fill out an application by a current staff person, applications received during that time will be processed in August. Thank you! | |
Are you a group of 5-15 looking for a way to partner in CRC's mission? There is currently a once-a-month Food Pantry and Resale Store group opportunity available on weekends. This may include deep cleaning, sorting, or stocking items. To learn more, contact the CRC Volunteer Manager.
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Learn More from the CRC Newsletter! | |
The volunteer newsletter primarily highlights the work that our volunteers are doing and provides training and updates that apply to the volunteering experience. The CRC newsletter focuses on client stories, CRC in the news, mission updates, and fundraising opportunities. If you would like to receive that newsletter, you can sign up for it here.
You can also check out the most current newsletter, full of great information, below!
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If you have a good story of volunteering, please share with me at volunteer@crcncc.org. I can include those stories in future newsletters as an encouragement to our team.
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Community Resource Center
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