‘Tis the season!
We are now entering the season where the stores are filled with pumpkin spice everything. This is our favorite season at Outreach because we know Christmas is not always easy for people. It is hard to get into the spirit of celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior when things are not going well and some are overtaken with their circumstances. Outreach understands that and wants to make this season joyous by not only giving some toys to some needy families, but by helping to make them feel whole again so they can focus on the real reason for the season. In order to make this happen, we need to collect a huge amount of toys, stocking stuffers, money to help with utilities and rental assistance and food to provide holiday meal assistance. We have already started to fill our food pantry with an abundance of holiday goodies. We are already beginning to sort toys into different age categories. We need to start early to prepare for the huge need of the community. We need many volunteers to make this a success. This is an overwhelming responsibility, and we know from last year that we cannot do everything, but everyone can do something. If you do not have money to buy toys or donate, we can always use volunteers. We are trying to get everyone motivated to start early. We are accepting new toy donations now and will continue until Christmas Eve. We really need the bulk of these items to come in before Thanksgiving, though. We start distributing the Monday following Thanksgiving.
Furniture Ministry
While the door has not yet been opened for us to have a thrift store, we are still contemplating the best way to go about handling our furniture ministry. We are looking for a larger warehouse space so we can keep all the furniture in one location and be able to access it more conveniently. We will start posting our furniture inventory on our website with a link from our Facebook page. As always we will sell furniture items at very affordable prices to the public. We will still continue the furniture ministry with a voucher from a partner church or agency at 75% off our already low price. In most cases, the partner church or agency will help in covering the cost of the voucher furniture. For example, if we are selling a sofa for $20 to the public, the cost of that sofa for a needy person with a voucher would be $5. We are putting small prices on the furniture now because we have been monitoring our expenditures for this portion of the ministry and it has been a small burden to the ministry with the cost of the storage, gas and repairs on our box truck. We still desire to help as many people as we can, but we would like to maintain our ability to continue helping the community while remaining debt free.
Holiday food baskets!
We are preparing to conquer hunger and hopelessness this holiday season. We are in need of assistance with this. We will not turn away any food donations; however we would like to have every food basket be similar. We have a list of items for each holiday basket. Each basket can be obtained for $25. We will post the list of items needed so each family will get the same ingredients for a traditional holiday meal. Everything fits in one paper grocery bag. We will staple them shut after we confirm all items are inside. The fixings were able to be purchased at Walmart for around $15 if you choose the Great Value brand. We will also include a restricted $10 gift certificate that will be available from Walmart as well closer to Thanksgiving. We chose this particular gift certificate, because it can only be used towards the purchase of a ham, a turkey, or produce. This will eliminate the storage of all the turkeys and give them a choice between Turkey and Ham. If you are not someone who likes to shop, you can send in $25 for each holiday meal you would like us to pick up.
You can help!
Your holiday dollar is able to go much further this year as we are streamlining and decreasing any unnecessary expenses. We are excited to see how this holiday season will be a blessing to so many. You are the backbone of everything that happens at Outreach and we thank you for caring and making a difference to so many lives.
We are now entering the season where the stores are filled with pumpkin spice everything. This is our favorite season at Outreach because we know Christmas is not always easy for people. It is hard to get into the spirit of celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior when things are not going well and some are overtaken with their circumstances. Outreach understands that and wants to make this season joyous by not only giving some toys to some needy families, but by helping to make them feel whole again so they can focus on the real reason for the season. In order to make this happen, we need to collect a huge amount of toys, stocking stuffers, money to help with utilities and rental assistance and food to provide holiday meal assistance. We have already started to fill our food pantry with an abundance of holiday goodies. We are already beginning to sort toys into different age categories. We need to start early to prepare for the huge need of the community. We need many volunteers to make this a success. This is an overwhelming responsibility, and we know from last year that we cannot do everything, but everyone can do something. If you do not have money to buy toys or donate, we can always use volunteers. We are trying to get everyone motivated to start early. We are accepting new toy donations now and will continue until Christmas Eve. We really need the bulk of these items to come in before Thanksgiving, though. We start distributing the Monday following Thanksgiving.
Furniture Ministry
While the door has not yet been opened for us to have a thrift store, we are still contemplating the best way to go about handling our furniture ministry. We are looking for a larger warehouse space so we can keep all the furniture in one location and be able to access it more conveniently. We will start posting our furniture inventory on our website with a link from our Facebook page. As always we will sell furniture items at very affordable prices to the public. We will still continue the furniture ministry with a voucher from a partner church or agency at 75% off our already low price. In most cases, the partner church or agency will help in covering the cost of the voucher furniture. For example, if we are selling a sofa for $20 to the public, the cost of that sofa for a needy person with a voucher would be $5. We are putting small prices on the furniture now because we have been monitoring our expenditures for this portion of the ministry and it has been a small burden to the ministry with the cost of the storage, gas and repairs on our box truck. We still desire to help as many people as we can, but we would like to maintain our ability to continue helping the community while remaining debt free.
Holiday food baskets!
We are preparing to conquer hunger and hopelessness this holiday season. We are in need of assistance with this. We will not turn away any food donations; however we would like to have every food basket be similar. We have a list of items for each holiday basket. Each basket can be obtained for $25. We will post the list of items needed so each family will get the same ingredients for a traditional holiday meal. Everything fits in one paper grocery bag. We will staple them shut after we confirm all items are inside. The fixings were able to be purchased at Walmart for around $15 if you choose the Great Value brand. We will also include a restricted $10 gift certificate that will be available from Walmart as well closer to Thanksgiving. We chose this particular gift certificate, because it can only be used towards the purchase of a ham, a turkey, or produce. This will eliminate the storage of all the turkeys and give them a choice between Turkey and Ham. If you are not someone who likes to shop, you can send in $25 for each holiday meal you would like us to pick up.
You can help!
Your holiday dollar is able to go much further this year as we are streamlining and decreasing any unnecessary expenses. We are excited to see how this holiday season will be a blessing to so many. You are the backbone of everything that happens at Outreach and we thank you for caring and making a difference to so many lives.