One Year Stronger
{Director’s Note}

I have been at Loaves and Fishes for one year now, and a lot has happened. Some good and some bad, but I think of it all as blessings.

As some of you may know, in March of 2023 we had a plumbing emergency. The short version is, through the hydro jetting frozen pipes, we discovered that the pipes needed to be gutted and replaced; half of them immediately.
As you can imagine, a job like this comes with a large price and a hard decision.
Do we try to search for a better price and take bids, all the while the food pantry is closed due to being unable to practice basic sanitation; or, do we take this price and only close for two weeks?
We could not close for that long.

The Blessing-
Even though we were taken advantage of by this plumbing company, It expanded the support system for Loaves & Fishes.
The amount of support that came in for Loaves & Fishes during and after this project was overwhelming. Including a spot on the local news!

Even though we had to take out a loan, it ignited a flame for fundraising and outreach that was fairly dim prior.
We pulled off 2 extra successful fundraisers last year. The Wing Crawl and a Yard Sale.

While we are still bouncing back, without God something like this could have been detrimental to Loaves & Fishes. No matter what is happening God has a plan. Though it is hard to see it at times, there is always a reason why you are going through hard times.

Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Over the next year I would like to incorporate these director’s notes as a chance for all of you to get to know me.

Frozen Chestnuts

I want to start by thanking all my volunteers that helped score thousands chestnuts, including the youth from the Rock House.

The first week of the Georgetown Christmas market was a rough one. The first Saturday was not bad, and we were able to go through all eight pans of Chestnuts we brought that day by 4pm.

Sunday on the other hand, was COLD.
Between the cold and wind, there was virtually no foot traffic. We were still able to go through three pans of Chestnuts, which was honestly a blessing. By 2pm the only people left at the market were vendors, so for our own health we called it a day.

However, I am happy to say the following week was quite a different story. We sold out of chestnuts both days!

I would like to give a special shout out to a few of the volunteers.

First: Ruth Baker who stuck it out through the cold to help sell what we could that first Sunday.

Second: Marc Lefkovics for being the loudest barker, and bringing in a crowd.

MVP: Marc Mumby for being my right hand man during all of this between transporting the grill to getting things set up. This would have been incredibly hard without you.

TIMBER!

We found out that our tree in front of our building was dying. Because of how close it was to the building it needed to go down immediately.
After some searching the Colorado Tree Specialists offered to take down the tree at no cost.

Not only did they get the tree down and cleaned up well afterwards they left this beautiful bench in place of the tree. Thank you to The Colorado Tree Specialists for your amazing work.

Wing crawl

On Saturday May 6 Loaves & Fishes hosted a Wing Crawl where participants got to vote for “The Best Wings in Idaho Springs”! The Colorado Wing Connoisseurs have spoken, and in 2023, MTN Prime has the Best Wings in Idaho Springs.

A huge THANK YOU to the participating restaurants for generous, and delicious, wings:

TommyKnockers

BeauJo’s

MTN Prime

Banana Leaf

Smokin Yards

Pick Axe Pizza

Thank you to our sponsor Keller Williams: The Debra Jo Abeyta Team