It's been quite a challenging and heart-warming year at the Shelbourne Community Kitchen. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, our small but mighty team renovated and moved our organization into a new, expanded facility. While the facility transition took nearly seven months, we kept on doing what we do best during the move. We distributed fresh and healthy food to hundreds of families and individuals in our community.
Thanks to our amazing partnership with Omnivore Acres and the newly installed Cedar Hill Garden (at St. Luke's), our volunteer garden team hit an all-time record, harvesting a whopping 8,010lbs of organic produce this year. This is more than we have grown in all of our previous growing seasons combined!
Once construction and final inspections were complete in October, we opened our new (hot pink) doors and welcomed all of our members to the new home of the Shelbourne Community Kitchen. It was so wonderful to see everyone again!
As part of the renovation and move, combined with the rising cost of food, our organization had some significant expenses to cover in 2021.
Gratefully, we would learn that our Project Manager, Craig Thomas, from Banyan Group could make miracles happen. Thanks to his passion and dedication for our work, Craig reached out to his network and helped to raise over $112,000 in donated time and materials to make our new home a reality!
We also had a generous anonymous donor reach out to offer their support. The donor challenged us to raise $25,000. If we could make it, they would match the funds and turn it into $50,000! This incredible donor challenged us twice -once in July, and now again this December. Our fantastic community of donors rose to the challenge and their generous support helped us reach our goal in July. If you can believe it, we are well on our way to reaching our goal of raising $25,000 with our End of Year Matching campaign this month as well!
Dozens of local businesses and community groups held food drives for the Kitchen this season, bringing in much needed food and supplies to help fill our Pantry shelves.
The outpouring of generous support that we received in 2021 has left our team truly humbled. We are forever grateful, and your support has helped our organization get through the most challenging financial year we have ever faced at the Shelbourne Community Kitchen.
We want to send our heart-felt thanks to all of our volunteers, donors, grantors, and members for working alongside us during all the changes and challenges we faced this year.
We will be closed from December 22nd - January 4th. Regular hours of operation will resume on Wednesday, January 5th, 2022.
As we head into our holiday closure and our team takes a much deserved break, we want to wish each and everyone a safe and happy holiday, filled with great food, rest and rejuvenation.
In community spirit,
Clarice Dillman, Board Chair
Kim Cummins, Program Director