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Our Daily Bread
"Our Daily Bread provides nutritious meals and facilitates referrals for other services to those in need."
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The Cutting Board
Special Edition - Harvest for the Hungry
Greetings!
This special issue of the Our Daily Bread (ODB) newsletter, The Cutting Board, kicks off the annual fall fundraising campaign, "Harvest for the Hungry". ODB's mission is to provide nutritious meals and facilitate referrals for other services to those in need. Help ODB spread the word and raise awareness of the issue of hunger, and fulfill its mission by donating during this special fundraising effort. ODB depends completely upon volunteer and financial support of the community to succeed.
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WHY DONATE TO OUR DAILY BREAD?
Our Daily Bread is a community soup kitchen that serves a free, nutritious noon meal Monday through Friday to the hungry and homeless in Denton County and surrounding areas. Our Daily Bread operates under the auspices and 501(c)3 status of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church. ODB currently serves an average of 180 meals per day, with many days exceeding 200. Since its inception in June of 2000 as an ecumenical mission, it has served 518,611 meals to the hungry. ODB also provides a continental breakfast each day at 10:00 a.m. upon opening. When weather calls for the local emergency shelter to open some nights, ODB opens its doors at 8:00 a.m. to accommodate their closure during the daytime.
Our Daily Bread has 1,224 clients enrolled, currently serving 1,178, of which 539 are homeless, and 76 are children.
With only one full-time employee (the Executive Director) and four part-time staff members, volunteer contributions are critical to ODB meeting its commitment to its clientele. ODB's volunteers contribute approximately 35,000 hours of service per year. They assist with all phases of the operation including, but not limited to food preparation, delivery, clean-up, pick-up of donated food, health services( provided by a physician and registered nurses), office assistance, assistance with fund-raising and grant writing, social services referral programs, special services, and many other necessary activities.
Total need-based services provided by Our Daily Bread include:
* Nutritious Meals served Monday thru Friday at no charge
* Snack Packs for weekend sustenance
* Hygiene products by request (average 2000 per month)
* Access to the "free" Farmer's Market enabling clients the opportunity to have fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as other boxed grocery products, canned food, pastries and breads.
* Bus Passes
* Shower Passes
* Laundry Vouchers
* Financial assistance to obtain identification cards
* Computer use on-site and free of charge
* On-site use of local and long distance telephone service
* Referrals to other social service agencies (for medical care, clothing, housing assistance, utility assistance, etc)
* "Permanent" Mailing address for clients prpvided
* On-site Medical/Nursing services provided with Denton Community Health Clinic by Dr. Masciarelli and registered nurses who provide diabetes counseling, assessments, and illness care, available Monday Noon -1:30 p.m. Additonally, a nurse is on-site Tuesdays for blood pressure monitoring.
* Application assistance for SNAP (food stamps), CHIPS, Medicaid for Children, MHMR Connections
* On-site representatives from various social services agencies, such as Catholic Charities, InterFaith, Catholic Charities VA Assistance, Goodwill Industries Employment Services, ICC Blood Pressure Nurses, Solutions of North Texas, and Tarrant Area Food Bank provided SNAP representative
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HARVEST FOR THE HUNGRY
Our Daily Bread began its annual fundraising campaign, Harvest for the Hungry, September 2. If you contributed to this effort in past years, we sincerely thank you and we hope you will continue your support. If you are new to this meaningful event we invite you to make a contribution to help us continue to feed the hungry and give support to the homeless and needy in the Denton area.
In order to prepare for Harvest for the Hungry campaign, additional volunteers gave their time These individuals were responsible for personalizing, folding and signing the letters prior to putting them into envelopes. Pictured immediately below are:
Elders: Miller, Johnson, Milligan, Thomas, Bingham, Johnson, Honey, Brummitt, Bunn, and Daley. Diana Warner, board member and Development Chair, Tom Newell, board member, Jim Jakusz, board member and his wife and volunteer Susie Jakusz, Martha Dunham, board member, Bob Stewart, board member and St. Andrew representative, Jarrell Sharp, Vice President of ODB board, and Pastor Katie Klein, Secretary of ODB board.
Once the envelopes were ready, still more volunteers were needed to apply labels, stamps, and stuff remittance envelopes into the 2000 standard envelopes. Pictured below are:
Elders: Simmons, Newman, Henrie, Peterson, Stanworth, Hatfield, Muhlestein, and Andersen. And, Sisters: Ram, Hunter, Tilton, Ewing, Gentry, Bingham, and Kelly Borski. Diana Warner (on the far left) is ODB's Development chairperson and the board member who coordinated the activity.
Please forward this newsletter to three, four, or more of your contacts whom you believe would have interest in supporting Our Daily Bread.
If you did not receive the Harvest for the Hungry mailing, please contact ODB by phone at 940-765-7607 or by e-mail.
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NORTH TEXAS GIVING DAY IS SEPTEMBER 19 - MATCHED DONATIONS THROUGH DONOR BRIDGE
North Texas Giving Day, September 19 this year, gives each Our Daily Bread donor an opportunity to make a donation and have his or her donation over $25 matched with a percentage of the amount given. Donate between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and Midnight and 100% of your contribution plus the additional matched percentage will be received by Our Daily Bread.
Donor Bridge will also be giving additional awards in various categories (see their website) throughout this event. Be sure to choose Our Daily Bread s the recipient of your donation at www.donorbridgetx.org when you donate on September 19.
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VOLUNTEER WITH US!
It takes an average of 25 volunteers a day plus a full-time executive director and four part-time employees for Our Daily Bread to operate and continue its mission.
Orientation is offered each Tuesday and Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. These sessions serve to make the time each volunteer spends with ODB as meaningful and beneficial as possible. If you are unable to attend on these days please email ourdailybreaddenton@gmail.com to set an appointment.
Besides daily food preparation, kitchen operation and food storage functions, other volunteer opportunities with ODB include:
- Daily food pickups;
- Pantry management;
- Food sorting and organization;
- Program Coordinators;
- Office Assistance; and many others.
This year alone, over 700 volunteers have worked over 7103 shifts for 22,230 hours worked.
For a complete list of Our Daily Bread volunteer opportunities and guidelines go to the ODB website at www.ourdailybreaddenton.org.
To finance and support its ongoing and growing mission, Our Daily Bread depends solely on grants, support from local partner churches, donations from area businesses and primarily, from volunteers and the general public. Your donations to Our Daily Bread are meaningful and necessary to maintain the free meals and services we provide to our clients. We sincerely thank you for your generosity.
DONATE NOW!
To donate to Our Daily Bread by credit card, go to www.ourdailybreaddenton.com and click on "Make a Donation", or send a check to Our Daily Bread, 300 W. Oak Street, Suite 100, Denton, TX 76201.
Sincerely,
Our Daily Bread
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