Kerin Delaney, FSC’s Executive Director

Spring is such a wonderful time of year: trees, plants, and flowers begin to bloom; the birds and ospreys return from their winter homes; and the extra daylight is a welcome relief after a long winter. At FSC, we are blooming too. We are excited to relaunch our mobile markets at the Falmouth Public Schools and renew this wonderful community partnership. We are part of a coalition of services participating in the ‘A Place at the Table’ lunches held at St. Barnabas’s Episcopal Church with a mini mobile market available to all who attend, including those who are currently homeless in our community. We launched a new program called ‘Senior Shopping’ on Thursday afternoons. which is available by appointment to our senior households. This offers them a more personalized shopping experience, as well as eliminating lines for them during food distribution.

We continue to make progress with our ambitious strategic plan and have increased food programs and financial assistance. expanded collaboration with community partners to offer more services onsite for our client families, and increased outreach to diverse communities.

April 1st starts our new fiscal year and for the first time in our 40 year history, we have budgeted $1 million for our food programs, which will ensure that we can meet the need, in terms of quantity and quality of foods, for the 600+ households who come to us on a weekly basis. In addition, we plan to continue expanding our mobile markets and outreach to those who are experiencing food insecurity on Cape Cod. We wish we were not needed and that everyone had enough to eat but we are relieved that we are a resource for the many families struggling to make ends meet.

Throughout the month of April. during National Volunteer Month, we will be celebrating our amazing volunteers, 450+ strong! FSC and our Hand in hand Thrift Shop could not operate without them. Every single volunteer and every single role is critical to our success in helping our neighbors in need. 

Someone recently described our pantry as a 'bee hive’, that is. lots of ‘worker bees’ all knowing their individual roles and all working for the collective good. We love that description!

There is so much to be appreciative of as we start a new year. I hope you enjoy this issue of our newsletter as you read about our many programs, community partners, supporters, and volunteers. And, if you ever find yourself in need of any of our services, please don't ever hesitate to reach out. Let us be the ray of sunshine that helps you bloom.