Good Cheer Food Bank – Volunteers

Mar 032010
 
 March 3, 2010  Posted by Kathy McLaughlin No Responses »

Volunteers really make Good Cheer a special place. They give energy and time out of their daily lives to help our community wide efforts on South Whidbey Island.  I wanted to spend some time recognizing the work of these special people; they are at the core of what we do at Good Cheer.

Ula Lewis is one of those special people.

Don’t let Ula see you throw away a coupon. She knows their real value.

Lewis is a special kind of volunteer for the Good Cheer Food Bank. She’s a coupon-clipper, organizer and frugal shopper who saves us hundreds of dollars a month by using coupons for items purchased at chain stores offering double and triple coupon redemptions.

As the mother of 11 children, Lewis had to watch her food budget at home and did so, partly by clipping coupons.

This past July, she decided to put her talent to work for Good Cheer by organizing coupons that Good Cheer had on hand and then adding to them. With the help of a small circle of friends, the coupon collection began to grow; so much so that Lewis invested in large plastic bins to keep all the coupons well filed.

Just about weekly, Ula and her friend Iola Helland go shopping on the mainland, mostly at the Albertsons and Fred Meyer stores.

“I tell the stores that I am shopping for the Good Cheer Food Bank, and that I am using coupons and will be buying sale items. Sometimes I phone ahead and they can bring in more of an item and hold it back for me.”

She always tries to shop more than one location of each store so that she doesn’t wipe any one store out of any products.

A recent example of her work are the boxes of brand name cereal on the shelves at the Food Bank. “They were marked $4.89 a box; but I watched the ads and found them on sale for $1.88 a box. I had a dollar off coupon for each box. So I got that cereal at 88 cents a box.” Another find was Kraft salad dressing at 37 cents a bottle, once the coupon was applied.

Lewis also will get certificates, from some stores, for $25 off her next purchases because of the quantity of groceries she buys, then uses them on her next shopping trip for Good Cheer.

She can spend up to 30 hours a week at her coupon and shopping work for Good Cheer; on top of volunteering at the Food Bank. This is a woman with a great heart!

“I appreciate Ula’s willingness to devote time not only for the coupon clipping and shopping, but also here at the Food Bank” says Food Bank Manager Damien Cortez. “She comes in regularly just to see if we need help and will give up her entire day just because she sees the need. I honestly don’t know what we would have done without her this week!”

We all love what Ula is doing for us at the food bank. It is something many in the community had encouraged us to do. It was so nice when someone said I will do it for you!

Lewis had a time in her life when she was on food stamps, so she understands the value of help. “I learned then that you can use coupons with food stamps. I figured if someone was going to give me money for food, I would spend it in the most economical way that I could.”

Helping others now is a way of paying back.

Anyone wanting to give coupons to Lewis for her project can bring them to Good Cheer.  Ulla will make good use of them:)

Good Cheer’s New Blog

Jan 202010
 
 January 20, 2010  Posted by Kathy McLaughlin No Responses »

Welcome to our new Good Cheer Blog! While we do have a website and a garden blog; I thought it was time to develop a blog site that highlights what we are doing at the food bank and the thrift stores. Websites tend to be rather static; it is difficult to add new content to a website.

A blog allows us to have a conversation with the community, its supporters and the volunteers that work so hard to make it all work. The use of photos to paint a picture is what makes blogging so powerful; unlike websites and newspapers. Photos can and do tell a story and I hope to bring them to you.

WhidbeyIslandLife.com, a blog here on Whidbey, posted an article on the Good Cheer Food Bank just last month and I thought I would share it with you. This is the type of writing that I intend to pursue. I love the use of photos and I think that it is important to explain how the food bank and thrift stores operate. This will be a place where I can keep you informed about events and have some fun doing it!

Expect to see changes everyday;  this is a work in progress!

Hope you enjoy the article from Mark:

This food bank on South Whidbey Island is all about good cheer. The Good Cheer Food Bank and its Thrift Stores have turned into quite a success story. Good Cheer had originally bought some property near the current location where they were going to build their new facility. Turns out the Masons were looking to sell their site and Good Cheer made the decision to buy the property and structures that now make up the facilities at the Good Cheer Food Bank.

I dropped by the food bank last week to find out a little bit more about the bank and the people that operate it. Most of the work that is done at the food bank and thrift store is done by volunteers. These special people take time out of their lives to help other people and there is no better work than people helping people.

The Good Cheer Food Bank is open six days a week to South Whidbey Residents in need of food. So, how does one access the food bank? Just show up; the staff will ask you some simple questions and you will need to have proof of South Whidbey residency. They trust people when they say they need food. This spirit of trust is reflection of the good people who work hard to make this a better community.

Clients are given a base of 70 points, plus ten extra points for every member of the household. For instance, a family of four would receive 100 points a month to spend on selection of food in the Food Bank.

Foods receive points ranging from one to fifteen for items that include cereal, canned fruits and vegetables, soup, pasta, flour, beans, rice, eggs, milk, bread, lunch meat, peanut butter, jam, noodles, sauces, potatoes, oatmeal, juice, chili, meat, chicken, and fish as available. Fresh fruit and vegetables are also available.

Good Cheer has an on-site garden that provides fresh produce to those in need. I intend to write another post on the garden in the near future. There is so much good coming out of this organization that I don’t have the space to show it all in one post.  The two photos are from the garden blog site; looks to be harvest time!

For the full article click here.