Wake Forest Community Table December Newsletter

Our Mission is to connect members of our community to the essential resources of food and personal care items and to each other through community gatherings. Gathering diverse members of our community for food, connection and education, we seek to transform the systems that necessitate the services we provide.

Wake Forest Community Table

December 2022 Newsletter

**UPDATED THROUGH MARCH OF 2022!!!

Donate to Wake Forest Community Table- $6 buys one meal!

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Meals Served Since April 20, 2020:

23,395

Hope House:

13,465

Olive Branch Baptist Church:

9,930

It Has Been an Extraordinary Year!

Lists are popular this time of year to review all the things we have accomplished, all of the things we are grateful for and the goals we have for the new year. This newsletter is full of lists, but it would be hard to deduce the love and light that has surrounded Wake Forest Community Table this year to bullet points on a list. Bodies, minds and hearts are fed every single time we gather because of all of the gifts you have offered our growing program. We have achieved some amazing milestones together this year and I look forward to all that we will do 2023!

Highlights of 2022:

-We have officially become a 501(C)3!!!!

-We have convened our first Board of Directors to plan for the future of WFCT!

Thank you:

*Marion Holloway

*Freda Hall

*Spencer Renfrow

*Bonnie Mwanda

*Tenice Caudle

for agreeing to serve on our first Board!

-We have served almost 200 meals each week in Wake Forest this year.

-We have provided hundreds of pounds of fresh local produce to families in Wake Forest each month.

-We have gathered more that 60 community member four times this year to discuss the history, systems and institutions that necessitate our meal program.

-We have connected with so many loving and interesting community members, volunteers and nonprofits who have taught us so much this year.

How can you join the Table in 2023?

-We need a bookkeeper who has some experience with nonprofits who can donate 5 hours a month to WFCT.

-We need someone with some grant writing/managing experience to help occasionally!

-We need food movers and deliverers. If you are able to lift and drive produce, food harvest donations from various locations in WF and Raleigh on Mondays and Wednesdays please email me!

-Spread the word about our program on your social media, with your friends and at work. Telling our story helps us feed more people!

-Sign up to volunteer (link above) or attend one of our gatherings in 2023.

-Donate!!! (link above)

Every meal costs $6 and provides families here in Wake Forest with hot nutritious and delicious meals-These meals have helped so many families save household income as food prices have increased 10.9% over the past 12 months

Give the Gift of an Awesome Shirt that Helps Feed Our Neighbors

These shirts are preshrunk 50% cotton/50% poly Gilden Softstyle short sleeve t-shirts that run true to size. You can reserve your order HERE and pick up your order before Christmas on 12/19 at Hope House between 4:30-5:15 The cost of each t-shirt is $20. You can bring cash when you pick up the order or Venmo @Joy-Shillingsburg. We will order more if there is a demand. Thank you for your support!

We Are So Grateful for:

WF Presbyterian Giving Garden and Northeast Community Garden for providing fresh produce to our program- this fresh produce has been so greatly appreciated with rising costs of food!

Cornerstone Church: This small but mighty church provided 40 bags of shelf stable groceries for our families to take home in October.

Pizza Hut- pizza donations and our faithful volunteer THOMAS-> who picks them up each Wednesday!

Starbucks- breakfast sandwich donations each Monday

Bombas Socks- hundreds of socks in Oct/Nov!!!!

The Produce Box: Their fundraising campaign raised over $4000 for us to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables this winter.

Wake Forest University and The Wake Forest Historical Museum Through the work and vision of Sarah Soleim PhD., the Manager of Community and Academic Learning at the Wake Forest Community Historical Museum, we developed an amazing partnership committed to gathering the community to learn our history, connect with each other and discuss the systems that have contributed to the needs in our community.

Hope House and Wake Forest Baptist Church for sponsoring meals each month and sending wonderful volunteers to serve on our neighbors.

Chef Jackie and her team from Oink and Moo: who cook meals on the first and third Wednesdays of each month!

Chef Gwen Sneed who prepares home cooked meals each Monday night at Hope House.

Our dedicated volunteers who show up every week in all types of weather to feed people and love their neighbors!

Hope Lutheran: for donating over 100 meals in November at OBBC! They served homemade chicken noodle soup, dessert and water to our community.

The Museum's Executive Director Ed Morris, supported our October gathering by welcoming over 80 guests to the Museum for the Community Meal to Honor Those Who Harvested, and in December he continued to show his support for WFCT by baking 30 loaves of bread (oatmeal, sourdough, cinnamon swirl, and cranberry walnut) for each family who attended our meal program on a Wednesday night at OBBC!

What a year!!!

Happy Holidays and Blessings for 2023!

Click Here to donate to WF Community Table through St. John's Episcopal Church

Please let me know if you have any questions:

joy.wfcommunitytable@gmail.com

919-229-9015