Dear Wonderful Volunteers,
November was an amazing month for Aunt Dot’s Place with the government shutdown, the freeze of SNAP benefits, the increasing numbers of clients, but also the amazing outpouring of support from our community. I’m so proud of every volunteer who manned longer shifts and who spent hours processing food donations that just kept coming in daily. Together, we handled over 12,000 pounds of food donations in November. We had so much food that we were able to give some to the pantry at Susan’s Place, Heavenly Food Pantry, the St. Mike’s College pantry, as well as a food pantry in Cambridge.
We also hosted several student groups from preschoolers to high school students who brought donations and learned more about our mission, and some mighty cub scouts too. Besides food donations, we received very generous financial donations and around forty new volunteers signed up! We are also getting a big response from people interested in being on the board. Amazing!
Our annual meeting is January 7 at 6:30pm. I hope you can come to vote on our new board members and hear Kaki McGeary’s presentation recapping highlights from this year.
We are in a strong financial position, so the board voted to once again distribute gift cards to our seniors and clients, while supplies last. Some of our clients live in hotels with only a microwave, so they will be able to buy pre-made meals, which is something they can’t buy with SNAP benefits.
Here are our November statistics:
Purchased Food (Cost):
| Food Bank | $370 |
| Stores | $10,876 |
| Milk vouchers | $788 |
Purchased Food (Pounds):
| Food Bank | 271 pounds |
| Stores | 5,521 pounds |
| Milk vouchers | 1,359 pounds |
Donations from Organizations (Pounds):
| Albert D Lawton Intermediate School | 17 pounds |
| Alliance Group | 274 pounds |
| Bellicate School | 270 pounds |
| Blodgett Ovens | 902 pounds |
| Center for Technology, Essex | 339 pounds |
| Chapin Orchards | 13 pounds |
| Downs Rachlin Martin | 111 pounds |
| EGO Salon | 704 pounds |
| Essex Alliance Church | 1,313 pounds |
| Essex Middle School | 736 pounds |
| Grace Methodist | 30 pounds |
| Heartworks | 227 pounds |
| Heavenly Food Pantry at First Congregational | 50 pounds |
| Homecare Assistance | 201 pounds |
| Indivisible | 109 pounds |
| L4 Collective | 21 pounds |
| Market 32 | 3,629 pounds |
| Mazzella Group | 121 pounds |
| Mount Mansfield Union (MMU) | 183 pounds |
| NBT Bank | 19 pounds |
| Park Street Kuts | 29 pounds |
| Partners in Adventure | 81 pounds |
| Pepperidge Farms | 138 pounds |
| Plant Station | 19 pounds |
| Poorhouse Pies | 87 pounds |
| Scout Troop 635 | 1,658 pounds |
| Starbucks | 107 pounds |
| The Farm Upstream | 312 pounds |
| Town Meadow | 272 pounds |
| UVM Cath Lab | 180 pounds |
| Vermont Food Bank (Free) | 604 pounds |
| Village at Autumn Pond | 79 pounds |
| Whitcomb Woods | 10 pounds |
Donations from Grocery Stores (Pounds):
| Costco | 3,337 pounds |
| Hannaford | 3,752 pounds |
| Trader Joe’s | 1,803 pounds |
Thank you to Kaki for all she did leading Aunt Dot’s Place, during this very busy month, and thanks to all of our volunteers, our generous donors and our community.
Sincerely,
Sue Miyamoto
Board President