September

September was quite the exciting month.

Not only have we received over $950,000 dollars worth of donations (food, clothes, furniture) but we had some awesome things happen with our outreach to the community.

Supplying Needs partners with H.e.l.p. Ministries every Friday and Wednesday to reach the community.  For the Grocery Give Away on Fridays we had an all time high of 348 families served on one Friday.  That is the most families we have served on a single Friday. 

One Friday we were able to give clothes along with the groceries. People love and are always asking when we are giving clothes away. 

And Last Friday we did hair cuts for anyone that wanted them for the first time.  People were lining up wanting hair cuts after they received their groceries. 

Also in September H.e.l.p. Ministries started going to the streets every Friday night between 10pm-1am.  We have given them supplies to put in their goodie bags, things like make-up, hygiene  products, and snacks.  This last Friday people were more receptive conversation and receiving hope and love. 

September was just amazing and we look forward to what God has in store for the rest of 2013. 
Sincerely,
Supplying Needs Crew

Pallet to an Orphanage in Belize

In 2010 one of our directors was given a plane ticket to Belize to check out an orphanage that was being built there by a young couple.  The purpose of the trip was to see if some day they would be a group Supplying Needs could give to.  The trip was fabulous, the founders of the orphanage were amazing and the plan was made that in the right time goods would be sent.

Today is that day!  We are extremely excited to announce that today a pallet was shipped to LOL Ministry (www.lolministry.com) for the use at their orphanage.  We didn't think this day would come so soon but it has and we are excited.  On the pallet is condiments, snacks for the kids, coffee for the volunteers, diapers, baby bottles, food of all different types, baby formula and more.  A total of 36 banana boxes full of goods, free of charge. 

How amazing is that.
Glory to God,
Supplying Needs Crew

School Supplies

Did you know that a lot of kids whose parents can not afford new clothes, backpacks or school supplies for school usually do not come the first day of school.  Why? Why do you think that is? It is mostly because they do not want to be embarrassed showing up on the first day of school in lack.

Today we were able to once again give to Helping Hands Back to School Backpack Give Away.   Not only were we able to help with some back backs but a whole pallet (Which is about 30 banana boxes) full of notebooks, rulers, binders, and other supplies needed for school.  We were also able to give 2 pallets of supplies that was geared toward teenagers and college bound students.

How awesome it would feel, plus what a relief to know you have all you need for school.

Last year Helping Hands had 1,000 people show up to receive school supplies, clothes, and hair cuts, free of charge.  The following three pictures were taken last year during their Backpack Give Away.

We still have one more pallet to give to a church in Elk Grove that goes to the schools to give supplies to those in need.

What a great way to start the school year.

Sincerely,
Supplying Needs Crew

2013 IS FOR SURE THE YEAR OF NEW BEGINNINGS!

This year has been a new beginning right after another.  On May 3rd we started the Free Grocery Give Away.  The first Friday we had 119 Families come out since then we have an average of 300 families every week.  On our highest day we were able to give to 345 families.

One Friday we had a brother and sister come out (5 & 7 years old) without their parents. They were skinny, filthy and looking for food. We were able to load them up with as much food as the brother could carry being that the sister couldn't carry anything that we handed to her.

Not only do we offer food on Fridays but prayer. There is no pressure but we love to pray with people.  A young man asked us to pray for a job for him. By the following week he came in a city bus uniform with sacks of bread. He told us he got a job as a bus driver. He had not been paid yet but with the rest of his money he bought loaves of bread for us to give away.  He was grateful for the service we had provided for him the week before.

There is a couple who went through the line sat down at our prayer tent and started eating hungrily a loaf of bread. For some of the people we give to we know it is helping them get by but for others it is their only source of food.

A lady who had been coming for groceries opened up and said she and her boyfriend had been currently homeless and during that time lost everything in a fire including her adult children's phone number.  A volunteer asked if she could pray that God would help reunite the family. As the volunteer prayed the word Facebook popped in her head.  She asked the lady for her children's full name and last location.  The volunteer looked on Facebook and sent out a few messages to people that filled the description.  One gentleman wrote back stating that was His mother and he would be ecstatic to be back in contact with her. He then directed us to look for his younger brother on instagram. Two men lined up with the description and one wrote back so excited to know his mother is alive and well.  So 2 out of 3 children have been found for the woman.

Recently we just finished putting the Free Store together. It will be by invitation only for people or families who are in need. They will be able to come during a set time to pick out 5-10 items from the store, free of charge.

It is ironic to say but because of the Grocery Give Away we are able to give more to groups.  At the end of the Grocery Give Away we have other churches or groups who are helping their local neighborhood to come and pick up the left overs we have from the give away.  Nothing goes to waste. 

Don't get me wrong we are still in need of companies to donate their non-sellable items to help us in our efforts to reaching the poor. With out the food we would not be able to be in these peoples lives that we are encountering week after week. We need produce, dry goods, baby food, canned goods, refrigerated and freezer goods, anything and everything to help the poor, hungry, and needy in Stockton.

We also need volunteers. We start giving groceries away at 8am and our gates close at noon so from any where between 6:30am - 1 pm we would love to have help. Any time you could spend would be a blessing whether an hour or the whole time.

For more information you can email us at jdbutlers@gmail.com

Sincerely,
Supplying Needs Crew

2012: WOW and 2013: The Year of New Beginnings

One word to Describe 2012: WOW!

From start to finish we have been building up steam.  It has been amazing.  We started the year with being being offered warehouse space and now we are pretty much all by ourselves in a 20,000 sqft warehouse! This is incredible in the fact that it has allowed us to increase in donations we can receive. Before we were working out of a truck: this meant we would pick up the donations, park the truck, open the back, sort through all that came in, and then deliver it from place to place until we were empty.  It took hours to do this and would eat up most of our day. 

But now with the warehouse we can pick up a donation, drop it off, and go back for more. I think the most donations we have received from a wholesaler who kept saying "Can you come back to pick up another load" was 108 pallets of items in a two week time period. 

Isn't she Grand!  

We have given to a total of 35 groups and have been able to expand to giving to 4 other cities besides in Stockton: Manteca, Tracy, Elk Grove and Bakersfield.  This year we were also able to give to a a dear friend who goes down to Mexico to help with Medical missions we gave him lots of blood pressure monitors for his next outreach he will be involved in.

This years a total of 914,499.94 dollars worth of food, clothes, furniture, toys, school supplies, office supplies, medical supplies and more came in and was then redistributed free of charges to the groups we give to and Adopt-a-Block.

For 2013 God said it would be the year of New Beginnings.  This year we want and plan to open a Free Store to the community.  Where those in need can come in and pick up some items they need, free of charge.

It still needs work and time but it is one of our goals to have this up and running. 

Our other goal/plan is to start a Free Grocery Give Away once a week to the community.  Where people would line up and we would take them through our lot to receive groceries for FREE.  We are so excited about this and being more hands on with the community.  With this we would approach more food wholesalers and different places than we have in the past.  

This is going to be an awesome year. 

 So put on your seat belts its going to be a high speed bumpy ride!!! 

And we can't wait.

 

To God be the Glory!

From all of us here at Supplying Needs

God Bless,

The Crew

A little boy whose family received from us at the Free Clothes Give Away in September.