Message from our CEO, Tracy Maki

Dear friends of Valley Outreach,

We’ve spent this week serving our community through a drive-up services model. We’ve been able to serve everyone who has come to us in need of food – more than 300 households.

We’ve also received incredible support in the form of financial donations and drive-up donations of shelf-stable, non-perishable food and personal care items.

It’s been really inspiring to see the community pull together (even if it is from a distance). The spirit of giving and desire to help is very comforting as we prioritize distributing food safely and equitably.

What does that mean? Of course, we continue to strictly adhere to food safety guidelines. It also means we’re taking social distancing guidelines very seriously to protect people in our community – clients, volunteers, donors, staff and everyone who comes to Valley Outreach.

Because of that, we’re not currently onboarding new volunteers. We’re closed to the public and do not even have our current volunteers scheduled to work. We appreciate the great interest we’ve seen in volunteering and would love for you to apply online. We anticipate a great need for volunteers as our operations get back to full strength. We’ll keep your information and contact you at a later date.

Equitably distributing food means that it’s easy for people in need to find it, the food has been safely handled, people get similar quantities, receive a variety of nutritious items and have choices when possible. As a community, we can do this when we leverage the strengths of existing organizations in the emergency food relief sector, like Valley Outreach, the Food Group and Second Harvest Heartland. These organizations are handling immediate responses while also quickly creating longer-term, sustainable solutions.

We’re encouraged by the way the community is rallying to support Valley Outreach and other nonprofits providing much-needed services.

We will continue to work collaboratively with others in emergency hunger relief and remain flexible as plans and policies evolve. We’ll also continue to provide updates on our social media and website.

We’re incredibly grateful to do this work and humbled by the support of our community.

Let’s make it better. Together.

Take care,

Tracy Maki, Chief Executive Officer

For more information about our temporary service model, please read Tracy’s update from Monday, March 16. Please stay tuned to our social media and our website for updates.