Eve Cook, Project 66 Food and Resource Center Development Coordinator was our guest speaker Sept. 17th. in 2018, Project 66 served over 5844 families and 17,944 individuals. Over 500 Edmond families are regular monthly clients of their pantry. Their grocery store-like pantry provides their clients choices that fit their needs. The center provides shelf stable foods, as well as fresh fruit, and vegetables, meat and dairy products and breads. The Regional Food Bank partners with Project 66 and other facilities in and around Edmond to provide several donations each year. Volunteers within Project 66 are continually scouring local grocers and other vendors for excess inventory, out of season goods, and shelf out of date produce that are perfectly fine for consumption but that won't sell in the market. This and the shelving and processing of these items plus the assisting of clients by volunteers during 4 service times each week results in over 19,000 hours of volunteer work each year needed to keep the Project 66 afloat. Considering over 786,382 lbs of food was moved through their facility in 2008, they used their time well.
The following is excerpted from the Project 66 website
The Mission:They are a nonprofit, faith-based ministry providing food to families in need. They work to feed our local population not only with food to meet their physical hunger, but to also feed their spiritual hunger through kindness, prayer, and the love of Jesus Christ. Their desire is to love God's people and commit to showing them His love through our words, actions, prayer and food.
Their Goal: They strive to reach those in our community who may go undernourished, such as children, elderly and working families who are facing unusually difficult economic times. Their goal is to provide each family with enough basic food for at least two weeks.