Thanks to your generous fundraising, The Corner Shelf kicked off its first week of custom curbside service! What’s that, you say?
The idea behind custom curbside is that clients can choose foods that meet their family’s unique needs. This allows them to take home what they will actually eat, and cuts down on food waste for both them and us.
Practically, custom curbside looks like this: cars drive into our parking lot and we give them a form with that week’s items—things like fresh produce, dairy, frozen meat and shelf stable items. Each client fills in their choices, and puts on their hazard lights to signal that the form is completed. Staff and volunteers then collect the form, put their specific items into bags, and load up their car – all with many thank yous, smiles and waves.
Paula Bowlby, our Outreach Associate Pastor, said, “The first day was a huge success. We loved the smiles that we got when we told the clients they got to pick their own food. The importance of bringing dignity to our clients was the driving force behind this endeavor. We served 62 households and 2787 pounds of food were given away.” (And during that time, Paula walked 9,303 steps!)
We are so thankful for our awesome volunteers and staff who are dedicated to this work. Fun fact: Kinsey Zafke, our Food Shelf and Outreach Leader, can guess the weight of a cart within ounces just by looking at it—she knows her stuff!
To learn more, or find out how to volunteer, visit The Corner Shelf page on our website here.
Do you need more volunteers to help?
are more volunteers needed? My husband an myself are retired and have time to help…what can we do to help, hours? days? …we have time and energy put us to work.
Hi Dianne!
Were you able to connect with Kinsey Zafke, our food shelf leader? If not, you can reach her at kzafke@whchurch.org.
—Emily from the Communications Team