Our response to food insecurity during the pandemic has been nothing less than herculean. Last year alone, we served nearly 16,400 clients equating to 56 tons of distributed food! In fact, we're now the sixth largest food distributor for Community Harvest out of 200+ distributors in Allen County.
So far this quarter, we've served 893 clients and distributed 10,590 lbs of food through our Food Bank. And, in WOW, we served 4,308 clients and distributed 19,250 lbs of food from January to March.
When you add those numbers up, we've served just over 5,200 food-insecure clients & distributed nearly 15 tons of food to date this year!
Numbers of youth attending the After-School Program have fluctuated due to the pandemic. But, our commitment to providing them fun, educational, and recreational activities hasn't waned.
We served, on average, 10 youth a day during the first quarter of 2021.
As you can see below, there were many giggles during the
We've been busy at the Shoppe this first quarter having served 566 clients in need of free quality clothing. We also distributed 4,751 items of clothing from January to March.
Several enhancements have been made at the Shoppe including a 'Bonus' area from which clients can select extra items. We've also turned our dressing room into coat storage due to the generous donation of several winter coats. And, last but not least, through the diligence of several committed volunteers,1000s of items of clothing have been sorted and placed on the floor for clients the past three months.
THANK YOU, to our Shoppe volunteers!
Mask Ops
Our Mask Ops initiative helped many at-risk families mask-up during the pandemic. We paid several contracted sewers for months and we're extremely grateful to them. While this program is winding down, we still have around 1,000 masks in the bank!
We've distributed over 2,330 masks in our food programs, to several area churches, and those working with the homeless to date this year!
National Have Fun At Work Day!
Staff celebrated National Have Fun At Work Day on April 1st with a nice lunch from Firehouse Subs and several rounds of charades.
This is what Girl Scout Troop #52127 did for Wellspring!
The young fabulous women of Troop #52127 put together 40 Birthday bags for our Food Bank clients.
Each bag included party favors, cake mixes and frosting. There were even a few surprises for each child in every bag!
Due to their generous donation of 1000s of trial-sized hygiene products, we can now add these to our mobile food pantries for distribution!
A special note of gratitude for the well-known artist Theoplis Smithwho created a beautiful mural in Wellspring's lobby of the Fort Wayne skyline in September last year!
It will remain our banner image for many Wellspring communications in 2021 including this newsletter!
Wellspring's efforts during the pandemic haven't gone unnoticed. Check out what others have said about us this year!
Television...
"Fort Wayne Set to Distribute Nearly $400K to 7 Nonprofits for COVID-19 Relief." WANE-TV, 2/9/2021, Click here.
Print...
"Fort Wayne Funders and Nonprofits Share Innovations in 'Essential' Systems during COVID-19." INPUT Magazine, 3/31/2021, Click here.
"Will Electric Works be an 'Inclusive' Development in Fort Wayne?" INPUT Magazine, 3/17/2021, Clickhere.
"Nonprofits to Receive Cash to Aid COVID-19 Response." Journal Gazette, 2/9/2021, Clickhere.
Video...
"Here We Go Fort Wayne." By Danny Parker Mobley, Clickhere.
We're super duper excited to hold our flagship program this summer! Our six-week Youth Summer Day Camp will be held from June 7 to July 16th from 9:00am to 1:30pm, Monday through Friday.
Youth Directors are already planning numerous recreational and educational activities, and we expect to fill-up quickly.
We'll be operating at 75% capacity this year, so we can have up to 50 youth per grade level. Here are the selected locations for camp:
Pre-K at the Wellspring center
Grades 2 & 3 at St. Mary Mother of God Catholic Church
Grades 4 & 5 at Trinity Episcopal Church
Grades K-1st at Salvation Army
Grades 6-12 at Salvation Army
Registrations may be found here and note that ALL registrations must be brought in-person to the Wellspring center for submission.
How can YOU help?
Financial, food, hygiene products, and clothing donations go a long way at Wellspring!
