YMCA Clay County Youth Food Delivery Program

We are the Clay County Youth Food Delivery Program. This is our picture and logo. This is a picture of the thank you card we received from a child in 2017 after we sent food home on the weekend for the child. No child should "werry" about their next meal. We are a community working together to do all we can to ensure kids don't "werry" on school breaks We deliver food to the children in Clay County for weekends, daily during summer breaks and we deliver 2 weeks of shelf-stable food for Christmas Delivery thanks to Duke Energy and our community to helps fill the need left for volunteers and financial donations. We are a community working together and doing the impossible.

We cried and then we smiled

Posted Friday, June 21, 2019, at 10:27 AM

Many of us cried today. Our tears were not tears of sadness, but tears of gratitude and awe.
As we finish up our daily delivery next week, we are faced with delivering three weeks of shelf-stable food and water on June 29, 2019 in Clay County North and June 28, 2019 in Clay County South. We will deliver again on July 20, 2019 in Clay County North and July 19, 2019 in Clay County South. We do this because we do not have enough volunteers to deliver daily in July. We are saddened to not see our kids every weekday in July, but this is a compromise that allows us to deliver food to cover the weeks until school starts.
We spend about $5,000 per week with daily deliveries. The reality is the “big delivery” food and water costs more than delivering daily (if you don’t count our volunteers’ gas and time). So, as we placed the first order, we were looking at a price of $18,000, which was a bit more than the $15,000 we would have spent daily. This was a stretch, but we were prepared. Then the number of children grew, and prices went up and we had to place a second order. We placed the order and just said a prayer. The total at this point was $22,000 for the first delivery. Then we have the second delivery in July that will cost close to the same amount.
Something was different this year as we faced the large and scary numbers. Our community has taught us to trust. Trust God and trust our community. We trusted, but admit we were planning to figure out how to complete the Summer Program, School Program and Christmas Delivery.
Then this happened today. Nicole Fry at the YMCA received a visit from a gentleman. That is all we know. He was a gentleman and wishes to remain anonymous. Nicole has dealt with keeping donations anonymous, so this was it wasn’t a problem for her. This happens quite often. Every donation is important, and donations are always enough when we put them all together. What does not happen quite often (well it has never happened) was the amount of this donation. The donation was for $21,880! He said God had placed it on his heart to donate this amount. We don’t think he would have any way of knowing how much was needed for this first delivery. In fact, if he did know, he got the information from somewhere other than in talking with us.
So, we cried today, in gratitude, awe and amazement. Someone is in charge and it isn’t us. Thank you all who listen and believe with us.