God’s Abundant Blessings!

For many years now The ROC Food Pantry has desired to purchase the building that we have operated out of, but has struggled to come up with the funding required to make that happen.  This has hampered our efforts at times to raise funds to make significant remodels, since it is challenging to find grantors willing to invest in making improvements on a property not owned by the organization they intend to help.  Our additional desire has been to purchase an emergency generator (approximately $20k) to support us through the power outages that often attend the summer wildfire season, as well as paving our parking lot (approximately $10k).  We would also like to remodel the interior of our facility to improve its functionality and broaden the services we might offer (approximately $30k).  Last summer we were given the opportunity to apply for funds allocated to the county through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA).  As you may have read in the Grants Pass Daily Courier on Friday, November 26th, it appears that we have been awarded a large portion of what we asked for!  Praise God!

What does this mean?  Well, it means that we will be finally able to fulfill our dream to purchase the very building that we have been operating out of for the last decade and make about half of our desired improvements.  Those funds were designated before they were even granted and we are blessed.  But what it doesn’t mean is that our cost of overhead and doing business has changed in any way.  We cannot use these funds for anything other than what we intend in our request for them, and that’s good.  Consequently we still have the tough monthly challenges of covering the costs associated with food, refrigeration, sanitation, vehicles, and staffing, so we still need your help!

If you are a regular donor to the ROC, let me say “Thank you!”  Because you give, we can give to those in need in Josephine County.  You are the means of Gods blessing to thousands of individuals every month who need a helping hand and reliably good food!  If you have never considered giving before, would you consider doing so now?  We can always use the help and with the challenges we have all faced over the last two years, we recognize just how uncertain the future can be. 

Now more than ever, we can really use your support.

A Challenging Winter…

Hard winter months combined with so many people unemployed or businesses shut down equals a busy start for 2021.  In the month of January alone we saw 92 new families who have never used our services.  We have heard over and over from folks who say, “I feel embarrassed to have to come to you for food because I’ve never been unable to afford to buy groceries before.  I’m usually the kind of person who donates to the ROC, but with the economy locked down I have way less income than normal and it has gone on so long that all my reserves are nearly gone.  I’m just trying to keep my head above water and feed my family.”  Our staff and volunteers work hard to be encouraging and let them know that we realize this and are all in it together. 

We know that these are hard times and we will walk through them stronger when we walk together. In January, our total number of individuals served was 4,350 with 1,357 of them being children.  Clearly the need is there and we thank all of our donors who make it possible for us to accomplish this task.  Without your support the struggle for our neighbors would be far greater.  May God bless you!

“the holy art of “giving for Jesus’ sake” ought to be much more strongly developed among us Christians. Never forget that all state relief for the poor is a blot on the honor of your savior. The fact that the government needs a safety net to catch those who would slip between the cracks of our economic system is evidence that I have failed to do God’s work. The government cannot take the place of Christian charity. A loving embrace isn’t given with food stamps. The care of a community isn’t provided with government housing. The face of our Creator can’t be seen on a welfare voucher. What the poor need is not another government program; what they need is for Christians like me to honor our savior.”
― Abraham Kuyper, The Problem of Poverty

Luke 8:22-25

Brian Bouteller – Executive Director

Volunteer Information

If you are seeking to give back to your community there is no better way than by volunteering at your local food pantry, please come into the office at 564 SW Foundry ST, Grants Pass to apply for a volunteer position.

Call ROC at 541-476-3344 for more information.

Shar & Addie

Vacation is over…gearing up for fall

My long vacation is over and as I return to work I can already sense that we are gearing up for the fall season. There are some specific needs that we have right now that I want to mention first. We are in desperate need of mens clothing. Our shelves have been bare for weeks and when we do get in a few jeans or shirts, they fly out of the door quickly. Our socks box has also been empty for weeks. These are important items for our clients. Please, if you can help in any way, it would be greatly appreciated.

We are also planning for our Fall Family Festival on October 14. This fun event will include games, raffles, pies, food for purchase, and a huge and very cheap rummage sale. W like to think of this as a “give back” to the community for the continued support. Save the date: October 14 from 11 until 3. It is going to be lots of fun.

July Update from the ROC

Greetings from Reaching Our Community Food Bank. This is a new post, just starting, and hopefully updating from time to time. Thanks to Kristin and John Noveske of imainstreet for training and allowing us to have more control over this web page. Keep watching this post for news, updates, and information as we move forward and keep serving those in need in our community.

God has been good to the ROC this summer and we are very grateful for all of the grants, assistance, and local helpers that have brought so much to our summer. Gardeners bringing in surplus produce have made our distribution weeks so bountiful. Babe’s Bakery and Heavenly Sweets continue to bring us surplus baked goods. We have also purchased food from Food for Less in Medford and dairy from Umpqua this summer to supplement our regular food resources from the Josephine County Food Bank.

Our numbers are on the rise! We heard in early July that our food stamp clients were getting cuts, some as much as 50% or more. That means that we will have new clients, people will require more help, and our jobs will continue to increase in work and service.

In early July a young lady went to this website and looked at our needs list. Then she went out and purchased as many of the tings as she could for us. That included personal needs items and food. When she arrived on a Saturday, her vehicle was literally packed full with items for the ROC. In all there were 348 pounds of food and personal items! Why did she do this? She was going to be baptized on the day following and wanted to do something to commemorate that. Awesome!

So this inaugural column is ready for you to read and digest. As always, volunteers are welcome, donations of food and clothing are welcome, and donations of money are also much appreciated. And you can give passively by linking your Fred Meyer rewards card to the ROC, or linking up on Amazon Smiles.

Look for more human interest columns coming in the near future.

God. Bless. Ron McCallum, Executive Director