On March 1, we sent out an appeal to the community to donate non-perishable food items for our hungry neighbors as our inventory was dangerously low. Six weeks later, we are pleased to report that our shelves are filling up due to the generosity of local organizations, businesses, churches and individual residents in the greater Folsom community. We have collected 25,276 pounds of our 30,000 pound goal! These non-perishables will feed the 200+ families coming to the food bank every week.
TLFB News
Big Day of Giving Fundraiser Giving Opens April 18
Big Day of Giving, the Sacramento region fundraiser for non-profits on Thursday May 2, comes at a crucial time at the food bank. Although reports indicate that inflation has flattened, individuals and families living at the poverty level are experiencing no relief at the grocery store, where skyrocketing food prices remain high. This is bringing more guests and longer lines to the food bank. The increased need for food is causing the food bank to expand its food sourcing for items such as milk, cheese, butter and sliced bread and sufficiently manage the long lines of guests that are waiting up to an hour for food outside the food bank, often in inclement weather. The goal to raise $70,000 will enable the food bank to purchase more core food items to meet the increased need from our food insecure neighbors and will fund the project to build an extended awning to provide protection to our guests while they wait in line. The remaining funds will be allocated to replace an inoperable forklift, necessary to transport and store our food donations. Donations will be accepted from April 18 – May 2 at 11:59PM.
Bet on Rotary Game Night & Fundraiser this Friday: Raise fund for the food bank
We are grateful that Rotary Club of Historic Folsom and Rotary Club of Folsom Lake chose Twin Lakes Food Bank as one of three recipients of the funds raised from this event on April 19. There is still room at the gaming table for you, if you haven’t yet purchased your tickets. This is a fun way to spend your Friday night and support your local food bank at the same time. Hope to see you there!
Impact Report 2022-2023 Now Available
We served record numbers at the food bank and expanded our outreach in the greater Folsom area.
Big Day of Giving Coming Soon
Big Day of Giving is our largest spring fundraiser of the year and we are setting the stage to raise $75,000 by Thursday, May 2. Join hundreds of other donors throughout the Sacramento region to help raise funds to continue the programs and services to feed our hungry neighbors. [Learn more]
Special Easter Gift for Families
Look at these smiles! A big thank you to our community partners who’ve helped us gift our guests with something special for Easter. Thank you Hope Presbyterian Church, Harbor Community Church, and Trinity Episcopal Church for the beautiful Youth Adventure Bibles, and Snook’s Chocolate Factory for the generous donation of specialty chocolates. Happy Easter from Twin Lakes Food Bank!
Upcoming Easter Event
Easter is a time of the resurrection story, the message of hope, moments with family and yes, even chocolate bunnies. This year, the food bank is doing Easter a little different. We will be gifting our families, with children ages 4-12, a children’s bible and Easter chocolate, donated by one of our small business partners Snook’s Candies. If you are interested in helping with this project, a donation of $15 will pay for one children’s bible.
Record Lines of Hungry Neighbors
Lisa Tuter, Executive Director
The story on the street is that consumer confidence is climbing, inflation is slowing and the economy keeps growing. The story at Twin Lakes Food Bank is quite different; the long lines of food insecure families coming to us for supplemental groceries every week remains high. They are nervous, not confident. The slowed inflation has not affected the high prices they are paying at the grocery store. The growing economy has not grown much of our guests’ paychecks to be able to pay for essential good and services.
Last week, I stopped to talk to Mary, who was waiting in a long line to be served groceries and thanked her for her patience as she had been waiting almost an hour to get checked in. Mary said that she grateful for the food bank because her finances had taken a hard turn over the last few months and then shared her story. “I am retired and widowed on a fixed income. I own my mobile home but the rent for the space is $800 and takes nearly 50% of my social security income.” Additionally, Mary’s credit card debt mounted due to increased interest rates and prompted her to pay off that debt, essentially draining her savings account. “I am literally living paycheck to paycheck with little money left to purchase groceries. Twin Lakes Food Bank is a godsend.”
Mary and other senior citizens like her are one of the reasons that Twin Lakes Food Bank has gone from serving an average of 1800 individuals to over 3000 individuals every month, since November 2023.
We are grateful to our financial donors who ensure that hungry neighbors like Mary get access to nutritious food through Twin Lakes Food Bank programs and services. If you haven’t yet contributed to the food bank, I invite you to consider donating now and join hundreds of others in our community who are making a difference in the lives of food insecure families
We’ve Got A New Look
We are excited to share our newly redesigned website with all our friends of Twin Lakes Food Bank! A huge THANK YOU to Janet Osterdock and her team at Zoom Media who worked hard to make this facelift happen.
Moving forward, we will communicate the happenings at the food bank with more frequent and shorter articles rather than the lengthier quarterly newsletters. Past newsletters will still be available on the website however.
So, take a look. Poke around. See what is happening at the food bank, learn about the lives that are being impacted and discover ways that you can support our mission to share the love of God in our community by providing food and support to our food insecure neighbors.