Open Invitation – if you volunteer in St. Augustine, we’d love to have you join us in
Palatka, and if you volunteer in Palatka, we’d love to have you join us in St. Augustine.
Operations:
As of the end of July, Epic-Cure has rescued and distributed 6.4 million pounds of
food. That food was used to help over 94,000 families and has prevented 2,816
tons of methane gas from harming our atmosphere.
Special Report – The Earned Income Credit
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!
The new round of the Economic Recovery Act spending includes paying families for what the IRS
calculates their Earned Income Credit would be at the end of the year – monthly, beginning in July.
The amount of earned income credit depends on the level of income, your filing status, and the number of dependent children you claim on your tax return. The earned income tax credit table below shows how the credit varies. Generally speaking, more income results in more of a tax credit up to a point.
The IRS has set these maximum table limits you can get for tax year 2020:
• $6,660 with 3+ qualifying children
• $5,920 with 2 qualifying children
• $3,584 with 1 qualifying child
• $538 with no qualifying children
See the graph on the following page … It shows that the credit is largest for those with the most children and very modest income.
It also shows that, as your income increases, this credit decreases …
In 2020, 25 million families qualified for the Earned Income Tax Credit and 36 million families qualified for the Child Tax Credit. The average amount of Earned Income Credit received by each family was $2,461 and the Child Tax Credit was up to $2,000 per child.
• These families are used to receiving this money as a lump sum at the end of the year.
• They count on it for big purchases and for paying accumulated bills.
Now, each month, they are receiving those amounts - in advance - without being informed that it is a “this instead of that” and not “this in addition to that” situation. If the government continues to give
out the credits monthly, taxpayers will get used to it, but NOT IN 2022, when they do NOT receive the money that they are used to receiving.
• This will be painful for many families in the first part of 2022.
Author’s note: We don’t know how widespread the issue is, but the IRS is issuing the credit to families that do not qualify for the Child Tax Credit. We are one of those families. So, we are receiving $172 per month that we will have to pay back at the end of the year. Because we understand the credit, we know to put it aside: we must pay it back because we DON’T qualify! How many families out there do you think know that they may not get the money or may have to pay some or all of it back? How difficult will it be on them when they must write a check for a few thousand they weren’t anticipating?
If that is the case for the Child Tax Credit, it is not a stretch to imagine that is the case for the Earned Income Credit as well.
Operations – Back to it!
A common question we get is – How do you know people aren’t taking advantage of getting free food when they might not need it?
The answer is: Come to any of our distributions, meet our patrons, and you will know that for more than 95% of them, they are legitimately experiencing need. We hear all the time that, because of the money
they save because of the food they receive:
• They didn’t have to choose between buying their medicine or food.
• They were able to pay their mortgage or car payment because of the money they saved.
• That a father or mother was able to quit a 2nd or 3rd job and spend more time with their family
because of one financial burden lifted. Imagine the benefit to the children in those families when they have their parents rested and engaged rather than exhausted and sick with worry.
Yes, there are a few that take advantage, but we will not stop helping the 95% - or more - to fix the few. And, the food was going to be wasted if not put into the hands of people!!!
Sustainability…
Our pilot composting program has been underway since July 9th. Layered between 2” to 4” of leaves, straw and cardboard, we added about 45 gallons of produce (5 gallons first week, 15 gallons for the next 2 weeks and 10 gallons on 7/30). It doesn’t look like that much because the pile keeps shrinking. We expect that the left side will be full in 2 weeks and then will start adding material to the right side while we begin turning the left side. So far, it smells good!!
What might be of interest is the difference in demographics between the families we serve in St. Johns vs Putnam County. There is an obvious relationship to the number of seniors, veterans and people with disabilities compared to cost of living between the 2.
Here is our PIPS (Pounds In & People Served) graph:
Notes on the graph:
As expected, pounds in remained relatively flat in July while people served is beginning to rise. We expect both pounds in and people served to increase in August. Pounds in will increase with our first delivery from the Church of the Latter-Day Saints shipment scheduled to arrive on 8/17 and people served is expected to rise due to inflation.
Sustain U. –
We are very fortunate to have found an “A” team of volunteers to help us re-launch our
cooking classes for middle school age children. So far, we have our first 5 sessions (10 classes) of
curriculum planned. We have volunteers working on creating class binders, shopping/ingredient lists, developing more lesson plans and getting background checks for those who will work with the kids. We hope to begin classes at the end of August or early September.
Awareness:
• We continue to look for a monthly mobile distribution site for a location in one of the following
zip codes: 32257, 32258, or 32259.
• An easy, impactful way you can help us it to please save and drop off your grocery store plastic
bags. You will be reducing waste by allowing us to re-use them and you will be saving us money
by reducing the number we have to purchase.
Volunteering:
To hear about ongoing volunteer opportunities, please join our Facebook Volunteer Group. Charity
Roberts, our volunteer coordinator, posts details about our needs every week.
Grants & Fundraising:
It has been a very slow few months on the fundraising side.
But, we did have the opportunity to present our petition to the Putnam County Board of Commissioners on 7/27. We asked them that when they receive the $14.4m in American Recovery Plan funds that they allocated $850k to help us purchase the building in Palatka. We think we have a strong case, but now we just have to wait and see and keep doing our best to raise the $6,250 a month in rent and hope no buyers come along.
If you are an Amazon shopper and do not have a charity you are supporting with your purchases, please consider choosing Epic-Cure and login to Smile.Amazon.com when shopping. 1% of all purchases go to support the charity you choose.
The Epic-Cure GOLF Event:
We are planning an awareness and fundraising event that will be held on October 25, 2021, at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club. The golf tournament will be held from Noon until 4:00 pm on the Ocean Course. It will be followed by a seafood buffet with an open bar at the Surf Club Patio – right on the beach!
Check it out:
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
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.