September Recap and October Updates:

Back to School

Our school program is back in action, delivering snacks, produce, and nonperishables to 14 schools across Placer and El Dorado counties. Thanks to everyone who has helped us prepare the food for this program so far. It has strained our already maxed out operation to get this program up and running again, so we really appreciate your help! If you haven't joined us yet for a school packing shift, it's not too late! Please check your calendars and sign up for an extra shift if you're able!!

Urgent Needs Page on Volunteer Website

Many of you ask us which shifts need the most help, and our answer changes every week if not every day. To make it easier for you to find where we are most desperate for help, we created a page to highlight upcoming shifts most in need of volunteers. It's a tab in the sidebar on the website (highlighted orange in photo), or you can find it by clicking this link. 

CalFresh Outreach Help Needed

We have a few outreach events coming up and we need some folks to help prescreen people for CalFresh eligibility and spread the word about the resources that PFB offers. I will host training at the warehouse this week, and we need at least 4 people who can help out on Sunday October 9th at an off-site event. You must attend training before attending any events in this role. 

Click on the links below to sign up for a training shift. Both shifts are the same, you only need to attend once. 

Training option 1: Wednesday, 10/5 from 3-4:30pm

Training option 2:Thursday, 10/6 from 4-5:30pm 

Record-Breaking September

This past month has obliterated our previous distribution records with 2,810 households served across our 10 distribution sites. In August, (the previous record high), we served 2,359 households. I'm composing this email a few hours after our Rocklin distribution on September 30th where we set a new site record with 507 households in attendance.

What does this mean for us? We need you now more than ever!

We are very close to adding another staff member to our team which will allow us to offer more shifts during each day! We'll send out an announcement when we expand the schedule, so keep you eyes peeled! 

If you are able to, please sign up for a few more shifts in the coming months. We need all hands on deck to keep up with this rapid growth in our distribution numbers, and we are so grateful to all of you for stepping up and helping us provide this essential support for our neighbors in need. It's a great time to hit up your friends, neighbors, coworkers, relatives, and anyone else you think might be interested in joining our work, we need all the help we can get these days! 

With gratitude and best wishes,

Grace, Jeremy, Shatonia, and Johnny

Distribution Data

Dave and Debbie just celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary and they believe Deb got Covid at the restaurant in Brussels where we were trying to celebrate.

They have two adult children living in Seattle. They love to travel, eat new & interesting foods (although sushi at Mikuni is always a winner), enjoy the outdoors, going to plays & live music, and hanging with friends. David is an avid (but slow) runner and Deb is a walker. He's done over 80 half marathons and she's done over 20. David used to work in telecommunications and traveled extensively including Italy and India quite often. This helped them earn frequent flyer mileage which is facilitating them working through their travel bucket list since his retirement. Not all of our volunteers have been lucky enough to spot Dave and Debbie, but they are at the warehouse on Mondays and Fridays to help sort through all of our household donations. A task that is definitely not a walk in the park but, they are amazing at it. 

Have you ever volunteered for a Produce Party shift? If so, Cheryl has personally made your life way easier! Cheryl does many different things at PFB, but we thin of her as our Bag Angel. Cheryl comes in once a week and pre-counts and bundles the green mesh bags for every single distribution that we operate. In September, she counted about 17,000 bags. She's also an awesome check-in lead at our distribution sites and comes in to help with other random tasks when we're shorthanded.

Cheryl is a retired hospice worker who loved her working with her patients and families. Her favorite places are Sea Ranch and Dillon Beach if she is on the coast and Lake Almanor and Lassen National Park if she in the mountains. in addition to volunteering, Cheryl enjoys music, dancing and jigsaw puzzles. She loves all kinds of music but mostly enjoys 70’s, 80’s and country. Her favorite food is pasta.

Cheryl’s hobbies are piano lessons, outdoor walking, and reading. Her favorite movies are Moonstruck and Beaches. She is such a joy to be around and somehow never loses count of her bags, no matter how much Jeremy bugs her. Whether she is counting bags or training check-in volunteers, we know we can COUNT on Cheryl. 

These rock stars are Beverly (or Bev) and Larry. They’ve been married for 51 years and have 2 children. Bev’s favorite food is anything besides escargot, and her favorite book is “The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse”. Bev enjoys taking care of her plants and gardening, loves trees, listening to positive and uplifting messages, and loves talking with people and hearing their take on things. Bev is one of the most insightful and warm people we know, and she effortlessly makes everyone working alongside her feel welcome and important. She went to a one room country school where they were able to ride their horses to school and one of her favorite words is “wonky”.

Larry, on the other hand doesn’t have a favorite book, but has over 1,400 books on his Nook. His favorite food is tacos and his hobbies currently include diving and powerlifting. He is our fearless traffic leader at most of our distribution sites, and always has insightful ideas about how we can make our distributions run more efficiently. He is a fount of knowledge about a wide variety of subjects, from traffic liability laws at our distribution sites, to where to find the best lapsang souchong tea, and everything in between. They are truly jacks-of-all-trades at PFB, volunteering for just about every opportunity we offer at some point in the year that they've been on our team and we can't imagine PFB without their presence.