Awareness:
An easy, impactful way that you can help us is to please …
Save And Drop Off Your Grocery Store Plastic Bags.
You will help reduce waste by allowing us to re-use them. You will save us money by reducing the number we have to purchase.
Volunteer Spotlight
All Volunteers
How many volunteers does it take each day of the week to manage Epic-Cure's operations?
Note: This is our typical weekly schedule. We did not include our once a month distributions in Interlachen, Armstrong and Eagle Rock Apartments or our every other week home delivery schedule and distributions at St. Benedict's and Woodlawn Terrace.
**Cooking Classes when in session.
Why do we not have cooking classes in Palatka? Lack of bandwidth. It is a very high touch program. The only way to grow this program is to turn it into a business with employees. We mentioned this in our 2022 Annual Report. We have developed a Class Fee Calculator which we are using for discussions with our first potential paid class.
We are not going to add pictures – too many people, all important in their own ways.
How difficult is it to manage this many volunteers? You might think that the task is daunting. It is not. Our volunteers’ hearts and minds are dedicated to managing this thing we call Epic-Cure® to maximum effect through hard work and cooperation. They even schedule friends and family to substitute for them when they are away for work or vacations!
Operations
We have 3 opportunities we are actively recruiting for.
Truck drivers in Palatka – varying schedules.
Store pickup volunteers in St. Augustine – varying schedules.
Every Sunday from 8:00 am to 10:00 am, we could use 4 to 6 people to assist stacking, wrapping, and loading pallets at the Palatka warehouse. We do our largest mobile distribution at the Melrose Fire Station every Sunday serving over 300 families so your volunteer efforts will have an immediate positive impact in the community. And you'll get a good workout.
People ask us all the time what types of products we get, and the answer is almost everything you see at every grocery store comes through our warehouses. This chart shows the percentage of overall pounds we process by category. In this edition of the newsletter, we are going to focus on non-food.
There are no estimates on how much waste there is in the non-food category.
Epic-Cure’s experience of this waste is all over the board. Some recent examples of things we have received include:
A plastic slide – nothing else, just the slide.
Pallets of comforters where some were good, and some were cut in half. Patrons took the ones that were cut in half to make pet beds.
Liquid laundry detergent where some had leaked out.
Pet food, cat litter, charcoal bags that had holes in them. We tape them up and give them away.
Holiday decorations after the holiday.
Mattresses that are returned to Costco.
Air filter multi-packs where the cellophane wrapper is torn.
Toilet plunger – nothing wrong with it.
Boxes of garbage bags where the cardboard packaging was dented.
An outdoor umbrella weighted stand – no umbrella, just the stand.
Deodorant with a cracked lid.
We find a home for everything. We must scratch our heads once in a while, but most of the non food items we get are highly useful and desirable.
Big Bonus Food Rescue this month:
We picked up 24 pallets of baby formula all with expiration dates in 2024. The retail value of that was $89,000. We were able to share with agencies serving women and children across 3 counties.
Here is our PIPS (Pounds In & People Served) Graph
Notes on the graph:
FEMA December 605,728
FEMA January 302,390
FEMA February 21,000
FEMA March 36,190
This food rescue business is a roller coaster. Thankfully, it has been mostly up over time. Let’s take a moment to look back.
Fundraising
Sustain U.® Cookbook
We are working on a cookbook fundraiser for Christmas. We would love to have local restaurants contribute recipes. If you are interested, please send it to support@epic-cure.org.
So far, we have recipe contributions from:
Lotus Noodle Bar, The Manatee Café, Vilano Main Street Diner, Crème De La Cocoa, and Harry’s
Shine A Light on Epic-Cure 5k Saturday, October 28th
Sign Up Today and Join the Fun!
Registration is open for Shine a Light - 5K for Epic-Cure! This year's event will take place on October 28th, 2023 at the Amphitheater, starting at 4PM.
We are excited to host the 2023 Shine a Light - 5K for Epic-Cure. Come run, walk, jog with us! We encourage everyone to come out and join us for a beautiful run through Anastasia State Park, followed by live entertainment for the whole family! We can't wait to see you at the starting line!
The 3rd Annual Epic-Cure® Golf Classic
The golf benefit for Epic-Cure® is returning on the eve of Halloween.
Costume contests!
Cart decorating.
Great food, and a great golf course: The Marsh Creek Country Club! Please join us – it is not your grandfather’s golf benefit!
If you are interested in golfing or becoming a sponsor, please visit:
If you would like to donate an auctions item for the event, please email us at support@epic-cure.org.
Our second Gold Sponsor has signed up for the golf benefit.
Thanks so much to Sawgrass Asset Management LLC for leading the way!
Sawgrass Asset Management is a wonderful partner with a tradition of charitable giving.
Our first Hole Sponsor has signed up.
And then there are our friends at Asado Life always advocating for us.
Thank you to our Bread of Life friends, Kim Daley, and Theresa Odom, for introducing us to our new friends at Lewis Oil, Kenny Brane, and Denise Brown, who are giving us a discount on fuel for our trucks. This is commUNITY ❤️ at its best. ❤️ Nonstop networking with community partners makes it happen!
Sustain U.®
We are gearing up to begin fall classes the week of 9/11. In the meantime, we had a wonderful time with teaching our students at 5 Star Veterans Center how to make homemade chicken noodle soup. They asked to learn how to make French Toast at our next class on 9/16.
We learned about a program called Welcome Home Kits. The Elks help veterans establish their homes by building Welcome Home Kits. Generally, this kit would include some small furniture, kitchenware, and cleaning supplies. They reimburse members up to $300 per kit and up to $500 for each kit that includes a bed.
So, of course, we immediately thought them when we got the call that 2 more veterans were transitioning into independent living from 5 Star Veterans program. We made one call to Cathy and Kevin Walsh from the St. Augustine Elks and the very next day they delivered 2 full set ups for veterans moving into apartments on 9/1.
This is another example community partnership networking that makes good things happen.
Transparency:
Anyone who wishes to see Epic-Cure’s financial statements need only ask.
Our CPA-Audited fiscal year 2021 financial statements have been released and are available upon request.
Also available on our website.
Click here to view: Epic-Cure's Financial Statements
Our CPA-Audited fiscal year 2022 financial statements have been released and are available upon request.
Will be available on our website soon.
Please email your requests to Sunny Mulford: sunny.mulford@epic-cure.org