November 25, 2024 newsletter

 

Good morning! So much wonderful news to share with you this week and so many wonderful people to thank...I want to get right to it!

• Our friends from Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Ayer provided our potluck dinner on Friday, and we all sat down and enjoyed a wonderful meal together! Special thanks to Angela and Andy G for their organizational skills.

• We received our final donations from the Boston Area Gleaners and the Community Harvest Project, who have kept us in fruit and vegetables all season. Special thanks to Alison, Rich, Jess, and Mike for week in and week out help.
  
  
• The Ayer Community School food drive was delivered. Special thanks to Martha, Christine, and all the kids and parents.
  
  
• We received a boatload of coffee cakes from Bake'N Joy, which always puts a smile on everyone's face. Thank you to Justin M, who faithfully drops them off.

• The Cookie bakers continue to be a big hit. We've had quite a few new guests at the pantry, and they are both surprised and delighted. Special thanks to Laurie S for coordinating, and to all of our fabulous friends who bake.

• Our Ayer Police Union provided gift cards so that our guests could get a turkey or ham or whatever for this Thanksgiving. Lin and Vinny M raised the funds and assembled bags of all the pantry supplies for the rest of the dinner. Many other people provided gift cards and supplies too, including our very own Tiny's Restaurant. Thank you to all!

• The Friday night dinner potluck crew decided that they all wanted to celebrate together on Friday as usual, so we will be enjoying a Thanksgiving (or Friendsgiving?) turkey dinner together this Friday. Thank you to all who donated towards that!

There's one more report for me to make: We have now received the grant money for our Coffee Bar! It will allow us to do coffee and pastries twice a month, or even more often if we have enough volunteers to help with it. We have 3 team leaders, but need more people to fill out their teams! Do you want to help? Once a month on a Saturday morning for a couple of hours? Outside in nice weather, inside in bad. Please let me know if you're interested.

If you can shop for us this week, we will gratefully take any food items from our full list that you might find on sale. If you need the list, please let me know. We'll be at the pantry on Wednesday from 10 to noon, Friday from 4 to 5:30, and Saturday from 9 to noon for drop-offs. And the bin is always available at Shop n' Save if those times don't suit. Please leave a note in the bag with your name so we know whom to thank!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving this week, and if you don't have any local family and want to join us on Friday, you are of course more than welcome 💕

Health + peace ~

Cyndi