Last year brought many milestones, but the most striking is the number of people we served across all of our programs — 6,665. It’s more than at any time in our 40-year history, and it speaks to the way we have adapted and responded to the challenges people in our community face in seeking a path to stability. You can learn more about our year in our online annual report.

Our biggest shift of the year was resuming in-person shopping in our food pantry after the COVID-19 pandemic caused us to operate exclusively through drive-thru and deliveries for over two years. The number of visits to the pantry — more than 60,000 this year — has steadily increased since then, with no sign of reversing. As a result, expenses for our food security programs nearly doubled during the year.

We also saw increased demand for our housing stability programs and we provided housing stability support to more than 600 households in our community.

We marked the first anniversary of our Connections Program, which helps people in doubled-up living situations find and maintain housing of their own.

As pandemic-era supports continued to fade, our case managers worked with families and individuals to prevent eviction and connect them with critical services. Other programs like our Seniors Program, Clothing Center and Seasonal Programs relieved financial pressure so families could focus on other expenses.

Even as demand increased, our community responded through individual and group volunteering, food drives, generous financial donations and more. Your partnership and support through this rapid period of change is what allowed us to meet critical needs and work to create food and housing security for people in our community. Together, we can make sure that next year even more people have the stability necessary to thrive.

Ellen Carlson
Executive Director