Volume VI | January 2023
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A Message From The Executive Director
Hello friends!

2022 was a big year for us! We expanded our service days to include Tuesdays. We opened up shopping to our customers weekly instead of every 14 days and we let people start shopping in person again. In the midst of these changes, food prices and living expenses jumped. Our clients, whose budgets were already strained, started visiting us more often and we started seeing new faces every time we were open. People turned to us for help and we were there to support them. We served 596 households, made over 1,600 home deliveries, unloaded 43 Shared Harvest delivery trucks, and rescued over 40,000 lbs. of food from being discarded!

As you can imagine, with a staff of 3 people, we have been overwhelmed at times by the demand of serving clients and keeping shelves stocked. The needs can seem endless at times. The good news is that we have been energized by our clients and volunteers! We have an amazing base of community and student volunteers who have our backs and keep us going! We cannot thank them enough for their support! We also have gracious clients who in spite of their circumstances and daily struggles, take the time to shower us with gratitude, hugs, and they are constantly cheering us on! Our work is hard but it's very rewarding!

I want to thank each and every one of you who support us! We appreciate every donation, every volunteer shift, every social media share, every plastic bag that's dropped off, and every positive vibe you send our way! We could not serve our community without you. We wish you a safe and peaceful 2023!


Sincerely,

Sherry Martin
Executive Director, TOPSS
Recent Events
TOPSS 2022 Holiday Distribution
Holiday distribution at TOPSS is a big deal! On Thanksgiving, we give our clients a bag of holiday foods and a Kroger gift card so they can purchase their own turkey (or whatever they choose). Why a gift card instead of a turkey? There are several reasons for this. First, it saves us the logistical nightmare of purchasing and storing 300+ turkeys. Second, some of our clients may be vegetarian, some may not have access to a stove, some may be unable to cook a turkey due to a disability or physical limitations, and some of our clients live alone and don't need a whole turkey. Giving our guests a gift card allows them a little more control over their lives and their holiday. We gave out 300 holiday bags for Thanksgiving over the span of 6 service days.

For Christmas, we took a different approach this year. We gave out bags of household items (dish soap, laundry soap, personal hygiene), wrapping paper, tape, and name tags to help out our guests with some of those last-minute holiday needs. We ended up serving 289 clients during the weeks before Christmas.

This means our grand total for holiday bags in 2022 was 589!
Service Highlights
Thank you to the Rod Northcutt's Miami Sculpture class for completing projects around the pantry that have made our lives much easier!
Thank you to Karen Martini for bringing us over 553 pounds of holiday food on behalf of her organization, Alpha Delta
Theta Tau!
Thanks to Meghan and her crew at Supportive Healthcare for bringing over a half ton of food and personal hygiene items back in October!
Looking to Get Involved?
TOPSS needs volunteers! If you are interested in helping us out, please use the link below.

You will need to create an account to view the available jobs and shifts. If you have any questions, simply reply to this email.

Most Needed Items
Here's what we need!
We get most of our food from Shared Harvest Food Bank in Fairfield at a considerable discount. Unfortunately, we are not always able to get everything our clients need. Here's a list of what we need right now. We also keep an up to date list on our website:
Amazon Wish List
Check out our Amazon Wishlist to send us items we need or get ideas for what to donate.
Follow Us on Social Media
Please follow us on Facebook or Instagram for the most recent news and events from TOPSS!