Happy Holiday Season!
Our first Harvest Open House was held at the pantry in Mid-October. I am happy to say, it was a huge success. A big shout out to everyone who helped make it a memorable event. There is nothing like hosting an event in house. Everyone knows, things must be cleaned, organized, tossed, and painted. Our new garden space was also tidied up! I must say we looked pretty good!
Happy Summer Everyone. One day it is 90 degrees, and then 68! That is weather in Michigan…very uncertain. Just like this past year!
As our families continue to face uncertainty, one thing is certain, Read full post
Here we are well into the start of 2021. What a crazy year 2020 was. At times things were difficult, challenging, and INSPIRING! I am now looking towards Spring 2021 with new hope and excitement.
I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who offered support during 2020. We continue to have volunteers who work in the building, restocking, and packing food, and volunteers who pick up product. Read full post
Dear Neighbors, Friends, and Community,
It is hard to believe that we have been working under our Covid conditions for 17 weeks. Spring is gone and we are now deep into summer.
We long for normalcy, however we know that normal will look very different in the weeks and months to come.
The Green Apple is taking back volunteers on a scheduled basis. If you are interested in helping us feed our neighbors please contact Yoli via email (at yolifuentes@thegreenapplepantry.org).
As we move forward towards a new normal, The Green Apple is working hard to ensure that we stay healthy and are able to meet the needs of our neighbors.
We have established a new policy for checking in our neighbors and the distribution of food to those who have a need. This will be a fluid process and we will make mistakes along the way; things may change many times before we get it right.
We would like to thank everyone who attended, donated to, and volunteered at our first ever Women’s Event! The Green Apple and I Support The Girls served 81 women with 1,627 menstrual products and 172 bras, and 264 pairs of underwear. Read full post
First lets start with our new name. As many of you already know we are now using the name The Green Apple. The board applied to the State of Michigan last summer to do business as The Green Apple and we have their ap- proval. The reasoning was that The Pantry was too specific for our community. We wanted a name that included all of the services and programs we provide. Since the green apple was in our logo it seemed to be the obvious choice. The board is currently working with a free lance artist to make the necessary changes. We plan to keep the green and orange color scheme and will have new brochure and stationery by the first of February.
I went grocery shopping recently and when I came home had to figure out where to put everything I had bought. All of the fresh produce had to fit in the fridge, along with the yogurt, cheese, milk, and other cold foods. The freezer had to be rearranged to hold the chicken, frozen veggies, and such. All of the canned and boxed food had to be organized in my pantry. I have a small kitchen with limited storage space and I have to think ahead when shopping about where to put everything when I get home.
While I was putting everything away I was thinking about our new home at The Pantry. It is sort of like my small kitchen. We have less space now than we used to, by almost 7,000 square feet, so our focus on having healthier items for our neighbors just got even more important. If we have even less room on our shelves and in our warehouse, we have to make sure that what we do keep on hand is the most nutritious options for those who will be coming to receive it. Read full post
On a cold and snowy Saturday morning this winter an email alert came through to my phone. As I read the email alerting me to a recent donation my heart leapt for joy. Someone had given a $2 donation and I was deeply touched by this act of love and generosity. While some may scoff at a $2 donation, it instantly brought to mind the parable of the widow’s offering, found in Mark 12: 41-44. If you are unfamiliar with it, it says:
“Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” Read full post
In Jeremiah 29:11 it says “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” This new year, we feel like this verse holds so much meaning for The Pantry.
2018 went so quickly and 2019 has so much promise. The Pantry has been blessed tremendously by our supporters in the last year amid a great deal of change. When we announced the need to purchase a new home and move our services, we had donors and volunteers step up to help. As of the end of 2018, over 84% of the funds for our $415,000 goal had been pledged or secured. We are so close to fully funding the Green Apple Initiative and have set a goal to raise the remaining funds by June 30th. Read full post
Have you ever been handed a cup of coffee or a fresh from the oven pizza and been told “Be careful, it’s hot”, then you take a drink or a bite anyhow and quickly regret it? I did that last weekend and burned the roof of my mouth on some hot, melted cheese.
Patience is a virtue, they say, but one that I think many of us, myself especially, can struggle with. Since we provided our last regular services in September and have been waiting for our new space to be remodeled, I have struggled a lot. Nothing seemed to be happening quite fast enough for me and based on the number of people who drop in when they see us in the building, reach out on Facebook, call, or email to learn about our progress, I would guess that this process isn’t happening fast enough for our volunteers, neighbors, and partners in the community either.
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Each year people gather together with family and friends and practice traditions of their faith and their culture. Many of these traditions revolve around food while others revolve around giving gifts. For families who face economic challenges, either of these traditions can place added strain on their already stressful lives. How do you bring together a large gathering of people and feed them all when you already struggle to put food on the table each day? How do you find spare resources to buy gifts for those you love when you wonder each month if there will be enough coming in to cover basic needs?
One tradition in my extended family is to draw names and get a gift for the one person whose name you draw. With their name is a list of the sizes they wear, favorite color, or a store they may really like to shop at. My mom, who had the ability to buy what she wanted throughout the year but remembered what it was like when we did not have enough to eat, decided instead to write the names of charities she wanted a donation to go to in her honor. And just like that, a new tradition was born. Read full post
