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Thank you!

ShareNet would like to thank you for your contribution to our work in the community.  As supporters of ShareNet’s mission to alleviate hunger, you are part of the community making sure local families in crisis have food to put on their tables, and that their children achieve nutritional levels which allow them to learn and develop optimally.  The giving statement enclosed is provided for income tax purposes.  Please review it for accuracy.   

The Year in Review

ShareNet experienced another year of unparalleled growth in 2009, serving over 2500 more individuals than in 2008 (for a total of over 8100 local residents) and almost doubling the total amount of food distributed, from 101,418 lbs. to197,044 lbs.  In 2009 ShareNet added the valuable Grocery Rescue program, a way for local stores (in our case the Kingston Albertsons and Poulsbo Walmart) to safely donate groceries they can no longer use.  The program was created by and is administered through our Washington Food Coalition partner Food Lifeline, a major regional force in emergency food provision and legislation.  Grocery Rescue has significantly increased our food supplies and their variety, allowing ShareNet to serve more people more food.  The program means increased work for our staff and volunteers and for the staffs of our local stores, but the result is an expanded stock which helps to meet increased demand.

Excellence in Community Resource Development Award

In 2009 ShareNet was awarded with Food Lifeline’s prestigious award for Community Resource Development, one of only five Excellence awards given annually in Washington, and only the second win ever by a Kitsap agency.  The award acknowledged ShareNet’s innovative efforts and approach in developing local resources to help people struggling in our community.  Our staff and volunteers at ShareNet were surprised and humbled by receiving the award, and we are glad to acknowledge any of our success is both a team effort and a community effort.

Thrift Store on the March

ShareNet’s Thrift Store continued to make strides in making itself known in our region through the excellent marketing strategies implemented by our new management team, who increased sales which help support Food Bank operations.  Every dollar a shopper spends at our store goes back into the ShareNet operation, benefiting our provision of emergency food, utility, and housing assistance.  In 2009, Amy Phillips became Manager, and Kelly Knight was added as Assistant Manager.

Awards and Grants

ShareNet is a community organization in the truest sense in that overwhelmingly we are funded locally and by “small” individual donations, grants, or awards.  The cumulative impact is not “small” when you look at the number of people we are able to serve and the way our help impacts our neighbors.  It’s not small to the community we serve, our neighbors who struggle to feed their families and preserve their households.  Demographically they range widely, but are mostly working people who have temporarily fallen on hard times.

Awards made during 2009 include the following:  Seattle Foundation, Munson Foundation, the A.Y. Petter Family Donor Advised Fund at the Kitsap Community Foundation, the Suquamish Tribe, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, the Smiley Charitable Fund, Kitsap Credit Union, Kitsap Bank, the Emergency Food Assistance Program, the Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program, and the Puyallup Tribe.     

Emergency Utility and Housing Assistance

With your generous donations, ShareNet was able to provide an incredible $25,000 in crisis assistance to local residents whose power or housing was threatened, making us a significant force in Crisis Prevention for our part of the county.  Few agencies in Kitsap, none of our size, were able to provide that magnitude of assistance, that preservation of heat and home.   We’d like to thank our partner in screening this assistance, the St. Vincent de Paul chapter in Poulsbo.  Because we don’t have the staff hours available to service this growing need, SVDP agreed to help us administer these funds, thereby increasing their own ability to help.

Seasonal Events

During the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday events, ShareNet distributed over 400 boxes with enough food for over 1700 meals.  Our Christmas Gift Shop held at Bayside Community Church helped make a brighter Christmas for over 100 children and teens.  American Marine Bank graciously organized and hosted our School Supplies Drive, providing over 100 students a fully outfitted backpack for a good start to the new school year. 

Neighbor Aid 2009

Our largest annual fundraiser brought in $62,880 from our generous North Kitsap communities.  Since the economic crisis which has contributed to our huge increases over the past two years seemed more deeply felt in Kitsap in 2009 than in 2008, we braced for the possibility donations might be down significantly.  We are pleased to report Neighbor Aid 2009 brought in almost as much as 2008, a sign to us that despite harder times, our community recognizes the importance of ShareNet’s work, of helping their neighbors, of hunger and poverty issues, and in attempting to improve a community by helping those struggling most. 

We must again thank our partner in promoting Neighbor Aid, Community News and their staff, whose help has been invaluable, as well as the thousands of individual donors, civic organizations, local clubs, schools, and businesses who participated or hosted a counter display advertising the fundraiser.  Though we like tracking and sharing the donation totals with our community thermometer displays, for us the dollar amount simply represents the amount of assistance we’re able to provide with it.  We appreciate the community’s trust and take our responsibility seriously to make our operation as efficient and as meaningful as possible, making certain we are serving the people who need us most, and meeting the most urgent problems within our field.  

Volunteers

Your donations keep ShareNet operating, and volunteers are the other part of that equation.  Volunteer opportunities occur continuously, especially for Grocery Rescue.  Go to our website, sharenetfoodbank.org, to download an application.

With great appreciation,

Mark Ince

Executive Director

Canned goods available in our Food Bank