Please watch the movie “Wasted: The Story of Food Waste.” You can watch it on Amazon or Netflix. Or, you can "check out" a DVD at our warehouse.
Operations:
• Challenges ahead – a Federal Grant Feeding NE Florida uses to purchase food to meet the increasing need abruptly ended 4 weeks early.
• Palatka warehouse update: The roofing contractor has been selected to replace the roof. Once we get on their schedule, we’ll get the warehouse ready in short order.
• For the next 4 weeks, we are taking over an end of route shipment from Feeding NE Florida. The distributions will be held at various locations in Palatka.
• We have a few more groups that would like to sign on for once a month distributions and are working on sourcing the required food.
• Chef Brian Dowd and a group of volunteers prepared Thanksgiving meals for 350 Murray Middle School students and their family members. Murray Middle School is a Title-1 school.
• One of the conversations around additional sourcing was with Waste Not, Want Not in Jacksonville. The Executive Director there was a great mentor to us in starting EpicCure. They have a waiting list of agencies wanting to receive food and we are now on that list. She mentioned that, during the week between Christmas and New Year’s, many food charities shut down so they will likely have a large surplus of food that week.
-Since we do not shut down that week, she will send the surplus our way then.
-If we have to open for immediate drive through distributions every day that week, we will.
-If for some reason we do not have enough volunteers, the patrons help us load their cars. They are very helpful when they see we are shorthanded.
• On December 5th, the Saint Johns County Sherriff’s Office volunteered with Epic-Cure to distribute food to good people at the Saint Augustine High School.
-The SJC Sherriff’s Office has promised to launch a fundraiser targeting $75,000 for a new refrigerated truck – “reefer truck.”
-Epic-Cure thanks Sherriff-elect Hardwick and all of the great volunteers from the SJCSO!
Notes on the graph:
• As of the end of November we have rescued and distributed 3,099,109 pounds of food since we began in May of 2019. So far in 2020, we have processed 2,783,182 of that amount. We provided an average of 56 pounds of food to each of the 6,445 families we served in October at a cost of $2.80 per family
Awareness:
• Former Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Tom McManus interviewed Epic-Cure cofounder Ken Mulford about the dual problems of food insecurity and food waste. Tommy Mac is a supporter of Epic-Cure’s mission and is engaging more and more. Keep an eye out for him!
-Meantime, here is the interview on Tommy Mac’s podcast:
The Horse’s Mouth with Tom McManus:
• Congresswoman Kathryn "Kat" Cammack attended our food distribution in Palatka on 11/25. You can check out the video she made from the distribution on this link:
• The message of food waste and how it can be used to help people is getting out there. We have groups in Jacksonville (FL), St. Louis (MO), and Chicago (IL) that are interested in trying to learn how we do what Epic-Cure does.
• To hear about ongoing volunteer opportunities, please join our Facebook Volunteer Group. Charity Roberts, our volunteer coordinator, posts details about our needs every week.
• While FNF does have contracts with most chain stores to rescue food, there are a bunch of independent small stores that do not. If you patronize any small stores that might not be serviced, we’d be happy to give you some of our brochures to share with those store managers and owners to educate them about what we do and how much it helps good people.
-There is a broad misconception that stores are liable for food donated to charities.
-The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act protect stores from liability.
-And, in late 2015, Congress adopted an enhanced tax deduction for food given to 501(c)(3) public charities that allows more than the cost of donated food to be deducted.
-You can read about both aspects – the protection from liability and the economic benefit of the tax deduction – in these documents.
Grants & Fundraising:
• Received donation from a private donor to purchase a forklift for our Palatka warehouse.
• Received donation from Kenworth of Jacksonville to purchase the freezer unit for the Palatka warehouse.
• Received a donation from Mark Bailey to purchase and install a much needed walk-in freezer for our Saint Augustine Warehouse/distribution center.
• The request for donations to purchase turkeys for Thanksgiving was a huge success. In 48 hours, we raised enough to purchase 650 turkeys. Thank you to our tireless volunteers that shopped non-stop for 2 days collecting those turkeys which were given out at 4 different distribution Monday to Wednesday.
Anyone who wishes to see Epic-Cure’s financial statements need only ask.
• Please email your requests to Sunny Mulford: sunny.mulford@epic-cure.org
Other Cool Stuff:
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