Dear Wonderful Volunteers,
“You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in.” Author Unknown. Thank you all for being the people with the heart to make our community a better place.
As I’m sure you all know, prices keep going up and the number of clients we serve are going up too. Your service and donations are critically important.
Updates:
- You voted on our vision statement and the results are in. Our vision statement is, “Our vision is to fight hunger and food insecurity in our community.”
- Aunt Dot’s Place was on TV! Go to WCAX.com and enter the words “food shelves” in their search function and you can see the video, or click on the following link: https://www.wcax.com/2023/03/30/extended-snap-benefits-end-putting-more-pressure-food-pantries/
- We will be serving food at the BeCause Craft Fair on May 6, which will be at Holy Family Hall, in Essex Junction. This craft fair raises money for charities, and this is a fundraiser for Aunt Dot’s Place. If you want to volunteer for this day, please contact auntdoplace@gmail.com.
- The Board approved a donor management software system to help us better track donations, acknowledgements, and substantiation documents.
- The Board voted to have outdoor Ring Cameras installed to improve the safety and security of Aunt Dot’s Place and of our volunteers.
- Aunt Dot’s Place provides emergency bags for people who don’t live in Essex, Essex Junction, Jericho, Underhill, and Westford. We will now also have some emergency bags geared for unhoused individuals.
- The Food Committee is looking for some volunteers to stock shelves on Saturdays, after the Saturday shift. Contact auntdotsplace@gmail.com if you are interested in this new volunteer opportunity.
March 2023 Purchases and Donations:
Purchased Food – $12,811.00
Donations from Organizations
- Essex Alliance – 1010 pounds
- Essex United Methodists – 23 pounds
- Poorhouse Pies – 62 pounds
- Price Chopper Bin – 347 pounds
- Price Chopper Store – 30 pounds
Donations from Grocery Stores
- Costco- 1510 pounds
- Hannaford – 1497 pounds
- Pepperidge Farm – 90 pounds
- Trader Joe’s – 793 pounds
- West Meadow Bakery – 12 pounds
One final thought, Aunt Dot’s Place will be doing targeted initiatives on Facebook each month. In April, we will be urging people to donate laundry detergent, dish detergent and cleaning supplies. We have not been able to keep up with the needs of our clients for these items. A simple way to increase our outreach is to share our Facebook posts to your friends.
Sincerely,
Sue Miyamoto, Board President