Major Thanks

to

AmeriCorps

Talk about good neighbors!

When AmeriCorps said they wanted to be of service to Lower Cape Outreach Council, they weren't talking about token gestures.

First they had a food drive for us over Martin Luther King weekend at which they honored our board president, Stepehen Underberg (see below) but that was just the beginning. They brought us a couple of cords of seasoned firewood for our clients and have said they will bring more whenever we run out. They built a spectacular covered, wooden box for us so we can store folded cardboard boxes from our food program. Finally, they went to the Hope Chest and completely revitalized a whole wall full of oversized shelves. Suddenly, we look like Bloomindales.

Anne Kiefer says that Rick and Joe taught their young carpentry assistants all about the wood and tools they were using while crafting a wall full of shelves that are nothing short of beautiful.

I hear they are coming back to fix the back door and a hole in the roof.

Our cup runneth over.

Thanks, AmeriCorps. You are a wonderful organization.

In Appreciation of Service Rendered...

Stephen Underberg with

The President's Volunteer Service Award

On Martin Luther King Day, Riley Moffatt of Americorps Cape Cod presented The President's Volunteer Service Award and a letter from The White House to Stephen Underberg, president of the Lower Cape Outreach Council at the Martin Luther King Day ceremony at Orleans Elementary School on Monday. The group's message, "A Day On, Not a Day Off" highlighted a day of service for Americorps Cape Cod, with several hundred members fanning out to do volunteer work for non-profit organizations. 

More Thanks...

First, we thank Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre for producing 4 Yule for Fuel concerts, from Thanksgiving to Christmas, to benefit our heating program,

Artists from all genres of music performed free of charge

on 4 successive Saturday nights to make this event a wonderful success .

Altogether, W.H.A.T. raised $5,450.00 to help our clients make it through the cold of winter.

Thanks, W.H.A.T. Thanks to Mark and Courtney, Ted and Chris. You guys rock!

A major segment of the Council's annual revenues comes to us from foundations that support the work we do in the communities we serve.

This year, we send out special thanks to...

The Eos Foundation

Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank Charitable Trust

TD Bank

Seamen's Long Pointe Charitable Foundation

Project Bread

Sailors Snug Harbor of Boston

The Mary-Louise Eddy and Ruth N. Eddy Foundation

You are our wings

In addition to over 4,000 pounds of food...

Linda Redding and Mary Parsons

presents Larry Marsland with $16,627.00

proceeds from this year's Turkey Trot Walk.

Linda and Mary are angels indeed.

They single-handedly started this event 8 years ago and grew it into a tradition that makes Thanksgiving just a little more wonderful

for over 1,300 participants and for Lower Cape Outreach Council.

Coordinated by the The Chatham Walkers and the

Unitrian Universalist Meeting House in Chatham,

the 7th Annual Turkey Trot Walk was co-sponsored by

these wonderful members of our local business community...

Wequassett Resort & Golf Club

Chatham Squire

Eldredge Survey & Engineering

Polhemus Savery DaSilva Architects & Builders

McClennen Family Chiropractic & Wellness

Stello Construction

Austins Screenprint & Embroidery, Inc.

George Avery Carpentry

Caring Touch Massage Therapy

Chatham Gardens

Cape Cod 5

Thank you, Andy Cederbaum and Anne Sigsbee!

You've turned waffles into gold

and we love you for it.

Ornaments for Outreach

A Huge Holiday Success!!

A million thanks to The Blue Gallery at 389 Commercial Street in Provincetown and to Paul Wisotzky and Brad Carlson for putting together a wonderful event that not only raised funds for Lower Cape Outreach Council but also served to raise public awareness of the Council's work in the town of Provincetown.

We love you, guys!

PROJECT BREAD's Status Report on Hunger in Massachusetts...

just released!

The status report on hunger in Massachusetts notes that in 2010, 10.8% of households were food insecure. This is the highest percentage reported since 1995 when this data was first collected.

"Income inequality is not a new phenomenon but, over the last ten years, as the number of high paying technology jobs have increased and the number of manufacturing jobs have dwindled, the gap between rich and poor has increased at an accelerated pace.

The chronically homeless, the newly homeless through foreclosure, the unemployed, the unemployed who have exhausted benefits, the under-employed, the elderly, children and immigrants - these groups are just some of the people behind the statistics of the other Massachusetts who find that hard work isn't always enough.

This report looks at people struggling with hunger in Massachusetts and poses solutions that reflect the latest thinking. The new thinking in hunger relief emphasizes community solutions, such as school food, SNAP, community gardens, co-ops and farmers' markets and summer food programs - all of which sustain the neighborhood as well as the individual."

You can help. Click on Contribute Online and make a tax-deductible contribution to Lower Cape Outreach Council's GIFTS OF HOPE holiday appeal.

82 cents of every dollar donated will go right back into helping our neighbors in need, from Harwich to Provincetown.

This Year's TURKEY TROT WALK

Was a Thanksgiving Dazzler!

8:00 AM on Thanksgiving morning the Main Street parking lot in Chatham was a sea of moms. dads, kids, teens, babies in strollers, dogs with bandanas and me.

How many people? It's hard to say. I did hear an announcement early on that all 600 commemorative tee shirts had been given away.

Our pantry manager, Ed Longton, estimates that we received roughly 5,000 pounds of food the next morning, delivered by the Turkey Trot organizers and thanks to Richard Waystack of Waystack Realty who donated his huge truck.

A great team of LCOC volunteers

unloaded and shelved 5,000

pounds of food on the Friday after

Thanksgiving.

Many thanks to Linda Redding and Mary Parsons, who conceived of this walk and have made it a Thanksgiving tradition. Thanks, too, to the folks of the United Unitarian Meeting House in Chatham, The Chatham Walkers and to the sponsors who helped make this wonderful event bigger and better than ever.

In this time when food is in such short supply in so many lower Cape households, we appreciate the friendship and support of all the folks who make this event such a wonderful way to start Thanksgiving Day.

A Bad Day for Turkeys...

A Great Day for Hungry Cape Codders!

On the Monday before Thanksgiving, over 50 Lower Cape Outreach Council volunteers, headed up by Nina Kaars and Leslie Pike and our manager of human service, Janice Perrin, distributed 700 frozen turkeys to Council clients in what has become a holiday highlight, the Turkey Distriubution at St. Joan of Arc Church here in Orleans.

Not only did we give out 700 turkeys, we also gave out bread (from Cumberland Farms and Pain D'Avignon,) stuffing and cranberry sauce (compliments of our friends at Nauset Newcomers,) potatoes (thanks to the Bird Watcher's General Store,) and 2-day packs of food, donated and packaged up by the Saint Vincent DePaul Society of St. Joan of Arc Church.

Thanks to the Stop & Shop Corporation for donating 350 turkeys to the Greater Boston Food Bank and designating them for Lower Cape Outreach Council. Thanks also to Shaw's Supermarket Corp. for donating so much frozen meat to us every week that we were able to hand out additional bags of frozen meat to everyone who came for a turkey.

And, thanks to all of you who came by with 350 more frozen turkeys during the week prior to the distribution.

You made this wonderful day possible.

Am Hayam Havurah

High Holy Days Food Drive

Stocks Our Pantry Shelves

Carol Roth and LCOC President, Steve Underberg

loading Am Hayam's food donation into our central

food storage facility

                                   It takes a lot of volunteers to unload 4,500 pounds

                                            of food.

Once again our local Am Hayam Havurah collected food for Lower Cape Outreach Council during the high holy days.

The total amount of food collected plus food purchased for us with cash donations came to approximately 4,500 pounds.

We appreciate this important friendship and thank the Am Hayam Havurah for this infusion of food at a time of year when our shelves are generally running dangerously low.

Many Thanks to the

Anglican Church of the Resurrection

Proceeds from the Anglican Church's recent yard sale were donated to Lower Cape Outreach Council to support our Emergency Food Program.

Larry Marsland spoke at the church's October 22nd service and accepted their check for $930.67 which will be used to support our 8 food pantries and our monthly food distribution.

We are grateful for such good neighbors.

Snow's Home and Garden

Comes Through for Our Food Program

In an editorial on September 17, 2011, Charles M/ Blow reports that,  "There are now 46.2 million poor Americans. Of those, 2.6 million fell into poverty last year. "

"Three out of four of those below the poverty line work; half had full-time jobs, a quarter worked part-time. Only one quarter did not work at all. "

Lower Cape Outreach Council

is proud to announce our affiliation with

Duffy Health Center

Visit the Duffy Mobile Health Clinic at

Lower Cape Outreach Council Center,

19 Brewster Cross Road in Orleans

Wednesdays, from 9:00 AM to Noon.