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:
Palatka Warehouse: October and the first week of November saw significant progress in
getting our Palatka warehouse “official.” The three 45’ freezer container units were placed on
their foundations. The step-up transformer needed to run the units has been ordered, and we
hope to have the freezers operational very quickly.
Thanks to Mary Phillips, we now have a floor scale that can weigh pallets!
The electrical work to hook up the hot water heater and make the fluorescent light bulbs
shatter proof is underway
St. Augustine Warehouse: The St. Augustine warehouse will have new owners in November. It
is confirmed with the new owner that our lease will NOT be renewed. We and many friends
are looking for suitable alternatives so we do not lose our foothold in St. Johns County.
More food available: Mark Anthony, President and Founder of Southeastern Food Bank, visited
the Palatka warehouse on 10/1. He was looking for a partner that distributes to both end users
and other agencies to push supplies to help in the fight against hunger – specifically in Putnam
County. Southeastern Food Bank approved the partnership with Epic-Cure the following week,
and we picked up our first truckload from them on 10/14. In our first 3 weeks, they have
provided over 38,000 pounds of food!
To manage this significant volume, we need to get a dedicated refrigerated truck for the Palatka
warehouse. Just this week, we had to turn down 6 pallets of produce because our other 2
trucks were in use.
o We are looking for a sponsor to cover that additional $2,000 a month and we are
on the waiting list to lease another truck.
Ryder will not have one available until after Thanksgiving. We are asking a lot of our St.
Augustine volunteers to undertake these very long drives (6 to 7 hours round trip) to pick up
food until we can secure the next truck.
Is it worth the trouble? So far, they have provided 2,000 gallons of milk, 2 pallets of eggs, 2,400
pounds of water, 4,050 pounds of dry goods and 5,200 pounds of produce. I would say YES.
Beginning 11/10, Epic-Cure will pick up food at Worldwide Aquaponics in East Palatka. For now,
they will provide 1 pallet of first cut produce every week. We will, of course, stand ready to take
any additional volume they have. Longer term, Worldwide Aquaponics will can produce and
provide it to us for our distributions.
As soon as the Palatka warehouse passes inspection, we will be able to order USDA
commodities which will be a significant source for dairy, produce and meat in Putnam County.
Food drives benefitting us this month (we are always appreciative of anyone doing a food drive
for us!!! Hint hint!!):
o 11/13 Rotary Food and Shred – noon pick up 76 South Roscoe Blvd, Ponte Vedra
o 11/18 Ketterlinus Elementary – 3:30 pick up at 67 Orange St., St. Augustine
o 11/18 Tiffany Acoustic Performance – 6pm to 9pm at The Beacon 830 Anastasia Blvd.
o 11/18 Slate Real Estate – 10am to 8pm BIG EVENT at 45 Durbin Pavilion Dr, St Johns –
see below:
• 10 am: PARTY BEGINS
• ALL DAY: Epic Cure on site for Turkey / Thanksgiving Food Drive
• ALL DAY: Michael Chancellor Music
• 11 am: Back 40 Quesadillas and Key Lime Pie
• 12 am: Kazu Sushi Boat
• 1:30 pm: Woodpeckers BBQ Slider Station
• 2 pm: Back 40 Quesadillas and Key Lime Pie
• 2- 4 pm: Cole LoCurto Photography
• 3 pm: Kazu Sushi Boat
• 3:30 pm: Ribbon Cutting with JAX Chamber, St. Johns County
Chamber of Commerce, and St. Johns County Sherriff Rob
Hardwick
• 5 pm: Back 40 Quesadillas and Key Lime Pie
• 6 pm: Kazu Sushi Boat
And, yes, we need volunteers for pickups at the Rotary and Ketterlinus events and volunteers to
sit at the Tiffany and Slate Real Estate events with a refrigerated truck/van. Please let us know if
you are interested in volunteering.
Composting: In anticipation of our 3rd composting location in a community in St. Augustine
Shores, our composter building team will meet on Tuesday to plan to build our next 2 bins. If
you are building 1, you might as well think positive and build 2. Thank you to Jean Clapp, Russ
Scott, and June & Mike Gutterson for signing on for the project!! And thank you to Cora Good
for advocating composting to her community Board.
Here is our PIPS (Pounds In & People Served) graph:
Notes on the graph:
As you can see, there was a significant increase in families served in October. Most of that increase was due to the timing of the month (5 Fridays where we serve 800+ families), but it is also due to the continued uptick in participation at ALL our food distributions due to inflation. We expect this trend to continue and have laid the groundwork to keep up with the increased need. (See More Food Available above)
Just to put February through May into perspective, those were the months when we were flooded with Covid food relief boxes, and we were
able to schedule many additional pop-up mobile food distributions resulting in increased reach and families served. June through August saw our normal food rescue levels. In September and October, Feeding Northeast Florida was affected by food supply shortages which in turn
impacted us.
Sustain U.
Cooking classes: Classes began on 9/27 at the Boys and Girls Club with 2 Sessions completed as of 10/27. Hands down, the favorite recipe so far was the Sticky Pineapple Chicken with Rice, but that may soon be replaced by the Roast Beef Po-Boys and Cinnamon Rolls, which we will prepare on 11/8, when Session 3 – Class 1 takes place.
We will start at our 2ndlocation, Woodlawn Terrace Apartments, Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning on 11/30. A few pictures of our class in action…
Grants & Fundraising:
The Putnam County Board of Commissioners meets Monday, November 8that 9am to initially decide on how much money will be expended in each ARPA category:
oPublic health,
oNegative economic impacts,
oServices to disproportionately impacted communities,
oPremium pay,
oInfrastructure, and
oRevenue replacement.
We will meet to advocate for them to allocate $850k of the $14m they will receive to help us purchase the Palatka warehouse and $140,000 to repave and expand the parking lot (yes, that is what it will cost).
We were awarded $7,500 by Clay Electric to purchase a refrigerated trailer. Given the need for back up refrigeration and additional transport capacity, this couldn’t have come at a better time. We’ll be shopping for one this week.
For Cyber Monday, November 29, we will be advertising our “Honor Cards”. We have $10, $25, $50 and $100 cards available.
Puzzled?
Andy Ledner, a local (amazing) photographer is donating his portion of the proceeds from sales of puzzles made from his photographs. If you are interested in purchasing one, or know someone who might be, go to
https://sharingsunshine.com/products/staugustine-puzzles-for-a-cause?
fbclid=IwAR0pgfFrm4dSsoT6ciL60OQG7YWo-YV9zkhxLrA3ylu5bIml99VRJAJNTo
Amazon Smile and Epic-Cure:
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:
It was a big success, and we are already on the books to do it again next October. So,
save the date: October 17, 2022 …
Holiday Giving – please consider using these Honor Cards to donate to Epic-Cure as your gift to your friends and family! Just ask Sunny or Ken for the actual cards if you wish …
Awareness:
•This is large and bold for a reason…
An easy, impactful way 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 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.
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