Archive for month: July, 2020

July 17, 2020

Here we are, still in the throes of a pandemic and with ever increasing uncertainty about what lies ahead for our community and beyond.

The good news here at Friendship Trays is, we are forging ahead.

• We are operating with still limited capacity, but continue to feed our most vulnerable clients.
• We are continuing to gradually add back some of our recipients we were not serving earlier, as well as adding some new people who are in critical need.
• We are very fortunate to have a corps of first responders helping us deliver and we have called a few volunteers back into service.
• We are practicing very strict protocols to protect our recipients, our delivery drivers, and each other. All of our deliveries continue to be no-contact deliveries.
• We are serving two reopened day care centers, one for children and one for adults.
  We are thankful to be able to serve the community.
• Our food continues to be well-planned and of high quality. Special thanks to Lani Lawrence, Kelly Vass, and our core kitchen staff who work hard to keep it so!
• We are thankful for Dirk Taylor with Performance Food Group, who manages our account professionally and with care and compassion for those we serve.
• Special thanks to Kathy Nichols, who organizes the meals each day for delivery. She is one of a kind, a very special and dedicated volunteer!
• A huge thanks to the gardens whose tenders bring fresh produce to incorporate into our meals. Jean Siers with The Society of St. Andrew enabled us recently to serve the delicious blueberry cobbler shown in the lower left corner of the picture.
• Thanks to the special people who make cards, placemats, and heart-felt, handwritten wishes to share with our recipients. Our folks look forward to receiving these loving touches.

We are so very thankful for the financial support we continue to receive from across the community from individuals, foundations, corporations, houses of worship, and others who recognize the need for a service like ours. Many of these donors support us all the time, but their gifts are so incredibly important now. As I have continued to think and say, our recipients live lives that are always at a social distance.

What can you do to help get nutritious food to your neighbors most in need? Our shelf-stable supply stock can always use replenishing. The reason is that we continue to send canned goods, snacks, etc. to our recipients. Please see our Amazon “wish list” here.

Finally, a huge thank you to Muddy River Distillery of Belmont in Gaston County for the generous donation of hand sanitizer.

One more bit of good news from us here on Distribution Street:

We are developing a more defined and formal telephoning system to keep in touch with our recipients. Stay tuned! Plans are under way.

– Lucy Bush Carter, Executive Director
704-333-2112