loaves & fishes of the fox valley,...

LOAVES & FISHES OF THE FOX VALLEY, INC. P. O. Box 1562—Appleton, WI. 54912—920-540-8474

loavesandfishesfv@gmail.com Board of Directors

President Steve Fischer

Vice President Dave Van Hoof

Secretary Anna Olson

Treasurer Jennifer Strick

Directors Bill Guilbeault Kathy Kuck Paul Salmon

Marilyn Schucknecht

Executive Director & Founder Carol Burns

OUR MISSION

Loaves & Fishes is committed to provid-ing a nutritious even-ing meal to anyone, in

a safe, welcoming environment.

“For I was hungry & you gave me food,

thirsty & you gave me drink, a stranger you

welcomed me.” Mt.25:35

Winning Words Help Loaves & Fishes

Russ Oestreich is a writer. His “pen” has been the means of earning a living for over twenty years, but Russ also combines the power of the pen with creativity, initiative, marketing know-how, and problem solving skills.

Early in his career, Russ was an editor and writer for a South African magazine. He then spent the next 18 years teaching middle school students to be writers. But he saw needs that weren’t being met, so he began matching grant opportunities with needs. He felt it was important for writing students to interact with high caliber writers, but that cost money…a lot of mon-ey. Russ secured grant funds to run the Fox Valley Young Writers Camp for four years. He explained that one person can’t make it happen; we need to develop partnerships and collaborations. “I had to sell it and in-volve so many other people.”

Today, Russ has embarked on a new writing career—that of a grant writer. He met with nonprofit foundation di-rectors to determine the need for someone to help area groups find funding. Many organizations aren’t large enough to do their own grant writing. Having a grant writer allows the executive director to focus on other, more original needs of the organization.

Next, Russ attended workshops to learn more about grant writing and running nonprofits. He began doing pro bono work for Loaves & Fishes. After meeting with Executive Director Carol Burns, it was apparent that L&F needed a walk-in freezer to handle the extra meals being served. L&F already had some grant money for the project, so Russ researched other grants that would be a good fit, then it was a matter of writing grants to JJ Keller and the Community Foundation. Success! Loaves & Fishes benefitted with $16,000 from the initial effort.

Currently, Russ is using his knack for problem solving, writing, and collaboration to help Loaves & Fishes with a planning grant through the Community Foundation. This will allow us to move to the next step as an organization, make us more effective, and ensure that we can continue to meet the community need of providing meals, even if this need grows.

Russ likes to say, “it’s not can we make this happen, but how can we make this happen.” We are indeed fortunate to be working with Russ as we continue to serve the needs of our commu-nity.

Russ Oestreich is the president of Winning Words Grant Writing & Consulting. (russ@wwgrants.com).

Anna Olson

Volume 1, Issue 2 Autumn 2011

P A G E 2

Dr. David Meyer First After Dinner Speaker

Pat Greidl has been The Commu-nity Meal Monday night Facility Manager for the past 2 years. Working tirelessly & always with a smile on her face, Pat greets, wel-comes and serves the guest as well as directs & assists the volunteers in their various positions.

Pat has accepted a teaching posi-tion beginning this fall and will no longer have the free time to devote to L&F.

On Monday, August 15th , Pat was honored with two

chocolate cakes as we wished her success in her new position.

It has been my pleasure to work with Pat. She is a people person, a self starter, compassion-ate and caring individual. Whatever the need Pat jumps to the occasion. We will miss her smiling face.

Pat first came on board as a volunteer help-ing out on Monday nights. She later became our Facility Manager and was a member of our board of directors. Those interested in learning the job of Facility Manager are asked to contact Carol Burns.

(monosodium glutamate), and transfats. These items are of-ten hidden in prepared foods so we need to read labels carefully to avoid them.

Other tips for reducing the bad effects of stress include drink-ing plenty of water (a rule of thumb is to divide your body weight by two, then drink that number of ounces of water each day), breathing deeply to increase oxygen intake, and get-ting six to eight hours of sleep daily.

After explaining the role of the central nervous system and the importance of maintaining a healthy back, Dr. Meyer an-swered questions from the au-dience. He returned on Wednesday, August 22, and provided computerized testing of the muscles of the upper torso for those who were inter-ested. Many jumped at the chance to have this evaluation.

We hope to invite other speakers on a regular basis to address areas of concern for our guests. If you have exper-tise you are willing to share, or know someone you think would be a good guest speak-er, or if you have a topic in mind you think would be of interest to our guests, please contact Carol Burns.

Anna Olson

On Monday, August 15, Dr. Da-vid Meyer, from Genesis Family Chiropractic in Menasha, was our first after dinner guest speaker. Dr. Meyer addressed over a doz-en Community Meal guests on stress and healthy ways to manage it.

He explained some of the health risks associated with too much stress, and pointed out that what is stressful for one person is not a cause of stress for another per-son. “It’s all about how you per-ceive it.” For example, one study found that more Americans are afraid of public speaking than they are death.

Together, Dr. Meyer and our guests generated a list of tools to help manage stress: control of breathing, exercise, meditation, prayer, and nutrition. Dr. Meyer said there are four food ingredi-ents we should try to avoid or minimize in our diet: high fruc-tose corn syrup, aspartame, MSG

GOOD LUCK PAT by Carol Burns

THANK YOU DEAR VOLUNTEERS

LEAD CHEF—NANCY KANGAS

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 2

Our Chef Spotlight this issue is on Nancy Kangas, our lead chef on the first Wednesday of each month.

Nancy is the owner of Monarch Gardens, a banquet/catering busi-ness, located at 2311 W. Spencer Street. In addition to hosting gath-erings there, she, along with Eric Rausch (another volunteer cook at L&F), began STREET EATS (a mobile food service in the Valley) for catering off site events. Moreo-ver, she has created a home meal program called Down Home Din-ners whereby people can order & pick up meals for a week or more. Nancy opened Monarch Gardens seventeen years ago.

Nancy became involved with Loaves and Fishes seven years ago. She knew Paul Salmon (our execu-tive chef) professionally because he provided ice sculptures for some of

the Monarch Gardens banquets. When Paul asked her to help with the Commu-nity Meal, Nancy began filling in on

Monday nights when one of the other chefs was unable to cook. In the years since, Nancy’s volunteer role has grown. Last summer, when Loaves and Fishes expanded The Community Meal to two nights, Nancy agreed to be the lead chef on the 1st Wednesday of each month.

Nancy does the main cooking at Monarch Gardens where she has the use of a large commercial kitchen, while the

volunteers prepare the side dishes at Trinity. By 4:30 pm Nancy is on her way to Trinity transporting the food along with help from her husband, Bill.

Nancy is very modest about her con-tributions, and gives a lot of credit to the other volunteers who help with meals. She said, “You tell the volun-teers what you need and they happily do that…it’s amazing! Some of the volunteers are there all the time.” When asked about the challenges of being a volunteer cook, she mentioned “obtaining the ingredients at a reason-able cost and making certain you have enough food because you never know how many people will be attending.” L&F has served as many as 198 meals in one night.

And what does Nancy enjoy most about her involvement with Loaves & Fishes? “Satisfaction that you are help-ing individuals who might need a little bit extra at times.” Thank you, Nancy.

Anna Olson

Nancy Kangas

Our volunteers are the heart & soul of what we do. Their helping hands & genuine smiles bring joy to those we serve. Whether called at the last minute to fill in for someone or arriving on one’s scheduled date they serve with a purpose, a dedication —to make the world a better place & to bring joy to others.

“Whatever you do to the least of these brothers & sisters of mine, you do to me.” Mt.25:40

INFORMATION ON THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION 25 FOR 25 CHARITY CHALLENGE

Let’s all make

Loaves & Fishes of the Fox Valley, Inc.

A recipient of the COMMUNITY FOUNDATION CHALLENGE

VOTE: October 16-25

1. Click on : www.cffoxvalley.org 2. Click on the 25 for 25 Charity Challenge icon. 3. Click on Loaves & Fishes of the Fox Valley, Inc. — Category 1. 4. You may vote each day from 10/16-10/25. 5. Anyone with an email address anywhere in the country may vote! 6. Tell your friends.

The non-profit with the most votes in each category will win a $25,000 endowment or a $2,500 grant!

THANK YOU

LOAVES & FISHES OF THE FOX VALLEY, INC.

P.O. BOX 1562, APPLETON, WI 54912 loavesandfishefv@gmail.com 920-540-8474

Website: www.loavesandfishesfv.org

Please turn page for more information.

A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD

Dear Friends,

I heartily thank everyone who has shown concern for our community through support of Loaves & Fishes of the Fox Valley, Inc. Our 2nd newsletter gives us the opportunity to present the recent successes & challenges we encounter as an organization. We’d like to thank everyone who helps us by donating their time, treasure, & talent—we couldn’t exist without the donated support of the community.

Our previous newsletter featured our need for a walk-in-freezer and we are happy to report that we have made a down-payment on a commercial freezer and are waiting for it to be delivered—many thanks to all who generously donated to this major purchase! Our next project is that of constructing our website. Currently a work-in-progress, you can now find us on the web @ loavesandfishesfv.org. Our web developer has taken a job out-of-state and while he does plan to finish Phase 1 of our site, we are wondering who may volunteer to become our web-master to ensure the on-going maintenance & development of our site? Other behind–the-scenes volunteer opportunities include managing social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) assisting our Executive Director on assorted administrative projects (such as creating future newsletters, Volunteer Coordinator, Etc.), and even serving on our Board of Directors.

Our Board meets @ 10 AM on the 2nd Monday of the month and we are looking for a couple of candidates who would be willing to help provide ideas & guidance as we strive to fulfill our mission. We like to say that we have an active or working board—so the ideal Board candidates would not only attend the monthly meeting, but also work on something during the month to bring to the meeting. If you are, or know, someone who might be willing to serve in this or any other volunteer capacity please contact Carol Burns, our Executive Director:

Steve Fischer

A FINANCIAL UPDATE REPORT FROM THE TREASURER---JENNIFER STRICK

Loaves & Fishes continues to be blessed with many generous donations and non-monetary gifts. From January to July 2011 the cost to serve one person was only $1.75 and Loaves & Fishes served close to 7,000 meals in that time period. Some interesting numbers: In August we served 1,529 meals to 1,064 guests. On August 24, alone, we served 198 meals to 148 guests.

Special thanks go out to St. Joe’s Food Pantry. Their food donations have decreased our food purchases by $200.00 compared to 2010, when Loaves & Fishes was only serving one night per week. THANKS! Although our food expenses have gone down in the past 6 months, other expenses such as repairs and maintenance have increased by $3,500.00. Our new walk-in-freezer will be installed by the middle of October which will cause an increase in our operating expenses. And our cooks suggest that upgrading our present residential stoves to a commercial grade will not only hasten the time it takes to prepare our meals but will be more cost effective as well.

It is great to see all that Loaves & Fishes has accomplished while serving another night each week and all the volunteers that help make it possible. Your continued support is necessary as our organization grows. Jennifer Strick

Please turn page for more information.

cburns@loavesandfishesfv.org or at 920-540-0474.

Easter Baskets garnished with green grass, candy and plastic eggs were dis-tributed to the guests at the Communi-ty Meal in April of this year. These gifts were created with love and much care by the 5th & 6th grade students at Janet Berry School under the direction of their teacher, Kathy Gigot. The stu-dents surprised each of the recipients by including in the plastic eggs a short greeting or poem depicting Easter and goodwill.

Kathy Gigot has been a Wednesday night volunteer at The Community Meal since July of 2010. She, along with her Bunko Group, volunteer on the third Wednesday of each month. Some of the students were not availa-ble to be in this picture, but we thank them ALL!!

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We’re on the web.

www.loavesandfishesfv.org

LOAVES & FISHES OF THE FOX VALLEY, INC. P.O. Box 1562 Appleton, WI. 54912

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EASTER BASKETS BRING SMILES TO MANY FACES

5th & 6th Grade Students at Janet Berry School & Teacher, Kathy Gigot