Business in Patchwork’s Food Pantry has been booming. In the first 6 months of 2016, we’re serving an average of almost 200 people per month. That’s up 35 people every month compared to 2015! That means we distribute a large quantity of food: an average of 1.6 tons per month! About 90% of that food comes from Tri-State Food Bank, our main 
supplier.
However, sometimes the Food Bank runs short on particular items that we include in every food order. Sometimes there isn’t the variety of food available from the Food Bank that we’d like to include in our food orders. And sometimes it’s simply good to get help to keep costs down for the Evansville Emergency Food Pantry Consortium that pays the Food Bank’s fees for the food our pantry receives.
That’s when it’s nice to get some help from our friends. We have a great group of congregations that have collected food for our food pantry for decades, and we’re grateful for their faithfulness. They know us and they know what we might need. Some ask each month what items we would like them to collect for the following month.
We have people who keep us stocked on eggs, since they’re on the list of items given as part of every food order but are rarely available through the Food Bank. Bill Hemminger brings us fresh produce from the garden he manages at the University of Evansville.
In May, we received 331 pounds of food from 8th graders from Thompkins Middle School. They collected food to win door prize tickets at their school dance and only got credit if the 
items they donated were on the list of items we include in every food order (no octopus parts or German sugar beet syrup).
Recently, we’ve added some friends of our dedicated food pantry volunteer Darlene. Darlene reports that one woman in particular is committed to filling the food pantry shelves. Darlene laughs because she knows that the food leaves as quickly as we can stock the shelves.
But we’re happy to see Darlene’s friend try her best to fill our shelves. It means many more people who need a little help feeding their families will go home with grocery sacks full of nutritious food.
Thank you again to everyone who donates food to our pantry and to all our dedicated food pantry volunteers!