At St. John's
Keep in your prayers this week: Peppy Seavey, Ted Bromage, Jean Storace, Spencer Ervin, Geoff Schuller, Bill Krueger, Doris McCorison, Gail Leland, Jeremy Harkins, Michael Shook, Joyce and Jim Risser, Loretta Schmidt, Theresa Mitchell, David Douglass, Fred & Dollis Sprague, Sara Winchenbach, Ray & Susan McDonald, Richard Ramsdell, Dorothy & Jim Clunan, Bill and Barbara Loveland.
Give thanks for the life of Peter Loizeaux who died December 24th. Keep his sisters (Peggy Engel and Sonia Loizeaux) in your prayers.
Remember to check out our website for MUSIC: www.saintsmdi.org Thanks to Stephen Sampson, Jayne Ashworth and Michael Shook, you may enjoy some piano music on the St. Andrew & St. John website. On the menu on the left-hand side of the home page there is now a link titled 'Music,' and clicking on that link brings you to recordings of piano pieces by Stephen Sampson.
Westside Food Pantry Dear friends,
I hope that everyone had a safe and happy Christmas! And now onward to 2021. When I reflect back one year ago, I am sure that I had every expectation that 2020 would be a normal distribution season. What will 2021 bring to our work?
Let's take a look at December 2020 first. We continued to operate using the windows for voucher distribution and dealing with any errors in our records. The only activity indoors is registration. That was in a separate room with a plexiglass window between the registrar and new neighbor. Here are the December numbers: $17,630 in regular vouchers and $5,000 in Christmas vouchers. This was a 4% increase over last year's regular voucher total. 347 neighbors served: 266 adults, 81 children from 200 households. We registered 2 new households with 4 members total.
Our faithful donor base has been generous as well as faithful. So many of the donations were increased this year. I was pleasantly surprised by this development, and grateful. Also, the use of our online donation button at westsidefoodpantry.org has received very good use since it went into service in late November. We have received new donations here--a welcome gain for 2020. Finally, to close out 2020, I want to thank the four of you who diligently hand-write acknowledgement notes to our donors. This is a crucial part of our operations. Thank you Ellen Gilmore, Ann Benson, Leza Colquhoun, and Genieve Mackenzie for your keeping up with the incoming donations this season.
Now, to 2021. The Pantry will open this Sunday, January 3, at Noon until 2 PM at St. John Church. The vouchers for January have been prepared thanks to Rita Redfield, Karen McFarland, Sandy Wilcox, and Carroll Fernald. Also, thank you Laura Sweeney who is monthly preparing all of our voucher labels, as well as mailing out vouchers to the neighbors who qualify to receive them this way. Approximately 35 neighbors who are over the age of 70 and/or disabled have requested mailed vouchers.
My wish is that we are able to continue our work as effectively and compassionately in the new year as we were able this past year. With your strong support, our faithful donors, and as long as the need to help our neighbors presents itself, I trust that we will continue this work as we have in the past 30 years. What a blessing and challenge this caring work affords us all! Thank you.
My best wishes always,
Dean
We invite you to visit the facebook page for the Westside Food Pantry! You will find periodic announcements and information about the Westside Food Pantry. Please visit the page and like it. You can find it at: https://www.facebook.com/WestsideFoodPantry/ | 
