2013 IS FOR SURE THE YEAR OF NEW BEGINNINGS!

This year has been a new beginning right after another.  On May 3rd we started the Free Grocery Give Away.  The first Friday we had 119 Families come out since then we have an average of 300 families every week.  On our highest day we were able to give to 345 families.

One Friday we had a brother and sister come out (5 & 7 years old) without their parents. They were skinny, filthy and looking for food. We were able to load them up with as much food as the brother could carry being that the sister couldn't carry anything that we handed to her.

Not only do we offer food on Fridays but prayer. There is no pressure but we love to pray with people.  A young man asked us to pray for a job for him. By the following week he came in a city bus uniform with sacks of bread. He told us he got a job as a bus driver. He had not been paid yet but with the rest of his money he bought loaves of bread for us to give away.  He was grateful for the service we had provided for him the week before.

There is a couple who went through the line sat down at our prayer tent and started eating hungrily a loaf of bread. For some of the people we give to we know it is helping them get by but for others it is their only source of food.

A lady who had been coming for groceries opened up and said she and her boyfriend had been currently homeless and during that time lost everything in a fire including her adult children's phone number.  A volunteer asked if she could pray that God would help reunite the family. As the volunteer prayed the word Facebook popped in her head.  She asked the lady for her children's full name and last location.  The volunteer looked on Facebook and sent out a few messages to people that filled the description.  One gentleman wrote back stating that was His mother and he would be ecstatic to be back in contact with her. He then directed us to look for his younger brother on instagram. Two men lined up with the description and one wrote back so excited to know his mother is alive and well.  So 2 out of 3 children have been found for the woman.

Recently we just finished putting the Free Store together. It will be by invitation only for people or families who are in need. They will be able to come during a set time to pick out 5-10 items from the store, free of charge.

It is ironic to say but because of the Grocery Give Away we are able to give more to groups.  At the end of the Grocery Give Away we have other churches or groups who are helping their local neighborhood to come and pick up the left overs we have from the give away.  Nothing goes to waste. 

Don't get me wrong we are still in need of companies to donate their non-sellable items to help us in our efforts to reaching the poor. With out the food we would not be able to be in these peoples lives that we are encountering week after week. We need produce, dry goods, baby food, canned goods, refrigerated and freezer goods, anything and everything to help the poor, hungry, and needy in Stockton.

We also need volunteers. We start giving groceries away at 8am and our gates close at noon so from any where between 6:30am - 1 pm we would love to have help. Any time you could spend would be a blessing whether an hour or the whole time.

For more information you can email us at jdbutlers@gmail.com

Sincerely,
Supplying Needs Crew

2012: WOW and 2013: The Year of New Beginnings

One word to Describe 2012: WOW!

From start to finish we have been building up steam.  It has been amazing.  We started the year with being being offered warehouse space and now we are pretty much all by ourselves in a 20,000 sqft warehouse! This is incredible in the fact that it has allowed us to increase in donations we can receive. Before we were working out of a truck: this meant we would pick up the donations, park the truck, open the back, sort through all that came in, and then deliver it from place to place until we were empty.  It took hours to do this and would eat up most of our day. 

But now with the warehouse we can pick up a donation, drop it off, and go back for more. I think the most donations we have received from a wholesaler who kept saying "Can you come back to pick up another load" was 108 pallets of items in a two week time period. 

Isn't she Grand!  

We have given to a total of 35 groups and have been able to expand to giving to 4 other cities besides in Stockton: Manteca, Tracy, Elk Grove and Bakersfield.  This year we were also able to give to a a dear friend who goes down to Mexico to help with Medical missions we gave him lots of blood pressure monitors for his next outreach he will be involved in.

This years a total of 914,499.94 dollars worth of food, clothes, furniture, toys, school supplies, office supplies, medical supplies and more came in and was then redistributed free of charges to the groups we give to and Adopt-a-Block.

For 2013 God said it would be the year of New Beginnings.  This year we want and plan to open a Free Store to the community.  Where those in need can come in and pick up some items they need, free of charge.

It still needs work and time but it is one of our goals to have this up and running. 

Our other goal/plan is to start a Free Grocery Give Away once a week to the community.  Where people would line up and we would take them through our lot to receive groceries for FREE.  We are so excited about this and being more hands on with the community.  With this we would approach more food wholesalers and different places than we have in the past.  

This is going to be an awesome year. 

 So put on your seat belts its going to be a high speed bumpy ride!!! 

And we can't wait.

 

To God be the Glory!

From all of us here at Supplying Needs

God Bless,

The Crew

A little boy whose family received from us at the Free Clothes Give Away in September.

Events, Donations, and More

There has been some amazing events that has happened in the past couple months.  Some we have participated in by partnering with other groups and some we were able to supply their needs for the outreaches they wanted to do.  One event that was so amazing was the Free Backpack Give Away that Helping Hands put on.  We were able to supply them with pallets of School Supplies to fill their backpacks.  Within the first 30 minutes of the event they had over 1,000 people.  Not only were they giving away backpacks full of school supplies but they had free food, free haircuts, free face painting, free clothes.  You name it, everything was free.

 

 

Last weekend we had our 3rd annual Free Clothing Give Away where we partnered with Victory in Praise and set up an area by the apartments we adopted to give away bags and bags of clothes as well as some toys, kid books, and baby items.  

 

As of now we are settling in a 20,000 square foot warehouse that we are staying in for free.  We are excited about the potential.  We have been getting in so much furniture.  One company donated all their store front furniture which we hope to use in the near future for a free thrift store.  

For 2012 from January through September Supplying Needs has received over 560,000 dollars worth of food, clothes, toys, furniture and other material.  IT has been an amazing year that is not over yet.  We look forward to these last few months of 2012 and we are excited what 2013 has in store.

Sincerely,

Supplying Needs Crew

Amazing Year Thus Far!

It has been an amazing year this far.  It is mind blowing how many donations are coming in and how much we have been able to expand in our giving from last year.

This year alone from January through June we have received more donations than all of 2011 by 40,000 dollars worth of donations.
All of 2011 = $337,000 worth of donations that came in.
Jan. - June 2012 = $382,000 worth of donations that have come in.

We have also been able to add another city to the list of places we have given to.  We are now able to help a church in Elk Grove, CA and since last year we have been able to give to a group in Tracy.  So we are now helping people indirectly & directly in Stockton, Tracy and Elk Grove.

Also Adopt-a-Block has expanded.  We still have two apartment complexes that we have adopted but now we have added another group who have adopted a section where the homeless reside. We are calling the branch of Adopt-a-Block, Adopt-a-Bridge.  Catchy, isn't it!  We have passed by these wonderful people with a short hello and mini conversation weekly when we would visit the apartments because the bridge is so close by.  But we never had a relationship with them until now.  We are connecting with these people in a very short amount of time.  It is one of the greatest blessings of Adopt-a-Block/Bridge.  Yes, we are able to help with immediate needs but to have a relationship where there is mutual trust is priceless. 

Thank you to all who participate with us either by praying for Supplying Needs and the work we do, or by donating product that meets the needs in the community, or by sending fincial support so we can pay our bills and put gas in our vehicles, or by coming out and volunteering at Adopt-a-Block and other events we are involved in.  THANK YOU!  It blesses us to no end.

From the bottom of our hearts,
Supplying Needs Crew

   

Annual Adopt-a-Block Barbecue 2012

We just had the most wonderful time this past Saturday May 19th have our annual Adopt-A-Block Barbecue.  It was so much fun. This year we cooked up 300 hamburgers, 200 hotdogs, as well as serving chips and soda.  We usually just invite the apartments we have adopted but this year we invited the homeless that live in the area as well.  Which is a great way to introduce ourselves because we will be adopting their area soon.  We are preparing a team to adopt a homeless section where every Saturday the will be going to their tents and "homes" to build relationships and meet a need. We are super excited about this expansion of Adopt-a-Block and we are calling it Adopt-a-Bridge.

The following are pictures that we took at the barbecue.

On the right is the property manager of one of the apartments.

 Joel and Auly (Part of the Adopt-a-Block Team)

 Cooking up the 300 hamburgers and 200 hotdogs

 Hope one of our wonderful servers!

 Serving the people.

 Some of the wonderful Children that live at the apartments.  They are so precious!

 Girl on the right in the white shirt is Crystal a team member the lady next to her is one of the homeless people that came to enjoy the food.

This year so far!

We at Supplying Needs have been so busy. If you would like to see our weekly updates visit our Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/SupplyingNeeds We are able to share on FB a quick sentence or two with what happens on a week to week basis.

Well Supplying Needs ended our fiscal year with nearly doubling the donations we received from the year before. And with doubling donations that means we were able to help a lot more people. In 2010 we received about 228,000 dollars worth of donations and for 2011 Supplying Needs fiscal year we ended with 421,000 dollars worth of donations. We are blown away by how God continues to provide even in the economy we are in especially with other non-profits shutting down or cutting back on the amount of help they can provide.

Adopt-a-Block is looking at a new and exciting opportunity as we continue to walk into 2012.  As of now we have 2 apartment complexes that we visit every Saturday to see the people and meet their needs to the best of our ability.  We have been able to supply all the families with food as it comes and have helped with furniture needs.  A single mom of three has been needing a dining table and we were able to give her a brand new table with 4 matching chairs.  Just recently a young couple moved and only had a bed, we were able to bless them with a table with matching chairs, couch, recliner, rugs, TV, and vacuum cleaner.  The table, couches, recliner, and rugs all matched each other and they came from 3 different sources.  It was so awesome to be able to bless this young couple with their needs and even a want.  Well now we are training a young lady to expand Adopt-a-Block.  She will take a team with her to Adopt-a-Bridge by adopting a spot under a bridge where the homeless are living.  We are looking forward to what God has in store as we embark on this new expansion of Adopt-a-Block.

Also this year we have taken on collecting for the next earthquake that will hit California. We are collecting bottle water, MRE's, and other items we will need to help respond to the natural disaster. We have 14 pallets of water so far and are still procuring MRE's.  We are also learning how to make jambalaya to be able to feed people.

To end this blog, this year for Supplying Needs has already been record breaking.  With in 3 and 1/2 months of 2012 we have received over 155,000 dollars worth of donations.  This is a pleasant shock with how much is coming in and how many people and charity groups we are able to help.  It excites us to no end to bless the city of Stockton, Lodi, Tracy, and Elk Grove.

Thank you for all your love and support. We really appreciate it all.

Sincerely,
Supplying Needs Crew

 At the Warehouse

God is Amazing!

God has been over flowing Supplying Needs with donations that are much needed in the city of Stockton. We have received couches, a chair, clothes, household items, food, pet food, and bottled water.

God has allowed us to be in peoples lives and in organizations lives who are making a difference in Stockton and it seems lately there is a need all the places we have been helping over the last few years.

In Adopt-a-Block the need has been piling up. We have people coming to us weekly asking for beds, coffee tables, couches, dishes and food. And now we have a handful of families that are asking for Thanksgiving dinners.

One of the directors of a food outreach called and said a family just lost everything in a fire and they had no insurance to cover the damage.

We are getting information telling us that organizations pantries are empty and in need.

And there is an event where the Stockton Parole Women’s Support Group will be giving female Parolees an opportunity to “Dress for Success.” These women have worked hard toward change, and we are affording them the tools to continue their success in the business world and in life. For this event on November 16th they provide clothing and training to be able to have a successful job interview.

There is such a need in our community. If you would like to help with any of these situations we just mentioned please call us at (209) 401 5053. We are still in need of beds, Thanksgiving Dinners, items for the Dress for Success Event and other furniture.

If you would like to keep up with us on more updates and even recent photos please check out our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SupplyingNeeds. Even if you do not have a facebook account you can still see all of our updates and photos.

God Bless,
Supplying Needs Crew

About Supplying Needs

Here is our Information Letter telling more about who we are and what we do.

WHO WE ARE: Supplying Needs is a 501 (c)(3) Christian Faith Based nonprofit organization that collects corporate and private donations of food, clothing, office supplies, toys, furniture and other much needed items. We then distribute these items free of charge to the local community. We are 100% unpaid volunteers operating with a minimal budget, and we depend on the generosity of people and companies for the items we truly need to continue in our efforts.

WHAT WE DO: Supplying Needs gives directly to the poor, hungry, homeless, elderly, and people who are struggling to make ends meet. We also give to groups who are already helping their local community. As of now we have given to 25 different groups who are all doing different things to help their surrounding area. Some give out groceries once a month to once a week. Others serve hot meals daily, some focus directly on the homeless (shelter, clothes, food, etc.) and others help the elderly or disabled. In 2011 from January through Mid-October we have received over 275,000 dollars’ worth of product donations. Supplying Needs also teamed up with Victory in Praise who has a ministry called Adopt-a-Block. Every Saturday we go and knock on 60 doors of families we have adopted. We help to meet their needs with food, clothes, furniture, and take them to see their loved ones in jail, visit them in the hospital, and trips to the store. We are seeing that by a small act of kindness these people have hope that they would not normally have otherwise.

Supplying Needs also teams up with groups that receive donations from us to put on community outreach events. We have hosted a few barbecues, a couple Free Clothing Give-Aways, and a concert which were all free of charge. At the beginning of September we did a Free Toy Give-Away where we gave away 19 brand new bicycles, toys, games, books, kid clothes, and movies. We also had face painting, balloon animals, and crafts. All of this was provided free of charge to any and every one that came to enjoy this event.

WHAT WE ASK COMPANIES FOR: We approach wholesale and retail companies about contributing their non-sellable products to our efforts. Non-sellable products are items that companies can no longer sell to customers either because it is close to the expiration date, the has been damaged, overstocked items, or it is not the quality that can be sold to a consumer. Supplying Needs has a refrigerated box truck that can hold 6 pallets and a mini bus that has all the seats take out of so that we can pick up donations at the companies convenience.

WHY STOCKTON? Statistics have shown that Stockton is 4^th in the nation for hungry people and number one worst place to live in the United States twice in three years. There are a lot of gangs, violence, poverty and other things that contribute to those two statistics. And we feel by reaching out to meet a need or show love it makes a huge impact in a community.

OUR GOALS:

1) To be distributing nationwide and worldwide.

2) As donations of food, clothing, building supplies, toys, and other items increase, we will encourage other groups to start programs that will help meet the need in their surrounding area.

3) To be a One-Stop-Shop for groups who have a desire to make a difference in their community.

To give without any strings attached so that they can continue in their efforts in helping reach their fellow man.

Supplying Needs Update

Supplying Needs now gives to about 1,400 people directly and indirectly (through sharing with other groups) food, clothes, and furniture. In this year alone from January through Mid-October we have received over 275,000 dollars worth of donations that has been distributed free of charge to those in need as well as sharing with other groups who are making a difference in their surrounding area.

Visited Bread of Life Ministries

On Saturday a couple of us were able to go and see for ourselves Bread of Life Ministry in action. It was amazing and mind blowing. When Bread of Life first started giving food it was to about 80 people and now with the economy and lack of jobs they are giving food away to 500+ with that number increasing monthly. They do an awesome job loving the people and meeting them where they are at. It is a blessing to be able to partner with groups like these who truly care about the people in their local area.

Praying Before They Give Out The Food!

The Line Starts Here!

Getting the Ice Cream Ready to Give Out!

Loading the People with Food!

For more pictures you can go to our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SupplyingNeeds Even if you do not have a Facebook account you can still see every thing on this website.

Bread of Life Organization

We at Supplying Needs love to partner with other groups who are loving their community and desiring to make a difference in the lives of those around them.

Bread of Life is a ministry that is wonderful and has such a big heart. They have many sponsors that help them and we are so excited and feel privileged that we be can one of those sponsors that help with food to this group.

This YouTube clip is all about Bread of Life and what they do. We are excited to call them friends.

It has been pretty amazing year so far. From January through mid-September Supplying Needs has received over 230,000 dollars worth of donations. Which has been distributed free of charge to individuals in need as well as 23 other groups who are working to make a difference in the city of Stockton. That is an amazing number compared to last year. For 2010 we received 200,000 dollars worth of donations.

We have also participated in a lot more community outreach events this year than we have in the past two years:

Free Clothing Give-Away on SOS day (Serve our Stockton Day)

Free Barbeque for Adopt-A-Block

Free Concert with Free food on June 5th

Free Toy Give-Away


As well as providing items for other groups events:
Helping Hands Block Party

Living Word Christian Center Free Carnival
&
Ambassadors for Christ Spirit Festival

It has been an amazing year and it is not over yet!!!

Free Toy Give Away

The following is a person account from one of our directors in regards to the Free Toy Give-Away we participated in with Victory in Praise

Lets start at the beginning shall we. So August 8 at 4 in the morning God showed me the free toy give away. I saw all these toys being given to tons of kids. I was so excited and said "Let's do it in December for the Christmas holiday"

God said "I don't want it around a holiday"

I said "November"

God "NO"

Me " October"

God "No"

Me "Not September Daddy anything but September"

God "September 9th"

I started to beg and plead with God in such a way i had never pleaded before that I thought He was for sure going to change his mind. After I was done groveling and pleading God said "I want to get all the Glory"

In which I replied "Oh you will if we do it in December you will, All the glory I won't get any as well as any one else. I promise Daddy you will get all the glory." Needless to say He never budged. So September 9th it was.

A week after everything was rolling I got up in the morning to spend time with God and said "God we don't have any toys, not one. I know you said to do this event but I am so nervous and don't' know what to do. Supplying Needs has never received much Toys I don't have a toy contact."

My God was so caring and said to me "Dess it is going to be like the feeding of the 5,000 with 2 fish and 5 loaves. You will have enough for everyone and there will be left overs."

Just to give an understanding Jesus was teaching 5,000 men plus women and children. THey had no food so he took a boys lunch of 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread and was able to feed all those people plus they had 12 baskets of food left over. So i understood that God was going to supply all we needed for this event plus we would have left overs.

The same day God had told me about the "leftovers" A man that allows Supplying Needs to keep our truck in his warehouse parking lot called and said that his family had just moved and was going to have a garage sale but didn't have enough time. if we could come and get all the items they were going to sell. Joel went and picked it up that day and to our great surprise 15 of the 19 boxes were kids, clothes, books, movies, and toys. Our friend didn't even know God told us to have a free toy give away. We were so excited.

The next week we had a load of food donated to Supplying Needs and God put a group on my heart to give to. When we got to their property they were so grateful and thanked us because their pantry was almost empty. Then it popped in my head that they receive toy donations as well. So I asked them if they had any toys they could help us out with for the event. Again to my great surprise they said they never keep the toys they get but give them all to other groups or something like that. They gave us a few bags full of nice toys and said they would hold toys just for us for the event. We received 2 more bus loads full of toys from them through out the month.

We had donations coming from the north, south, east and west. It was amazing. My dear friend Diahanna said we could keep toys in her empty garage that she had just cleaned out. So we would bring the donated toys to our garage and go through them then take them to Diahanna's garage to store. Our garage would get so full of toys that we could not put any more in so we would take them over and by the next day if not that same day we would get more toys from other sources and our garage would be full again. It was so amazing to see God work.

Also my hearts desire was to have free raffle prizes for the kids. Bikes of all things. We advertised that we needed bikes but not one came it. So a week and a half before the event I was talking to God and told him that if He wanted us to have bikes than please provide but if not I was going to be fine with it. Well a few days later in the mail I get a package from my dear friend in LA. We email back and forth telling each other what God is doing in our lives. I had mentioned that God asked me to do a Free Toy Give-AWAY but that is all I really said. In the package was a card that said use this money for what ever you need for your event and in it was a check for 1,500 dollars. Can you believe it. I asked God what to do with it and he said it was for my bikes that I had been wanting. i said oh that is wonderful and i can buy a few more things we need for the event as well God said No it is for bikes only.

So we went the day before the event and bought 19 brand new bikes for $1,500.82. Isn't God just so awesome.

So the day of the event we were setting up. All the games, movies, clothes, and books and some toys. We had all the tables up and chairs and everything was in place. then it started to rain. And rain and then thunder and lightening close to us. People were freaking out. I was even freaking out because we had weather issues the last time God told me to do an event. But after praying and talking to God and God saying JUST TRUST ME we just went about what we were doing. And about 15 minutes before the event officially started it had stopped raining where we were at and was sunny and hot. But through the event you could see a wall of rain all around us on all four sides as well as lightening. God likes to show off I believe (In a good way of course) People came out we had about 180 people for the event church members and people we had never seen before.

People would come on to the property and immediately receive one raffle ticket for the bike give away. Then they could look through clothes, or go get movies, books, and games. There was a table for balloon animals, face painting, and helium balloons. There were 6 tables set up for arts and crafts for parents and kids. I even saw some painting piggy banks. It was amazing. Then at 7:30 all the tables shut down to do 3 skits for everyone that were so hilarious and told about Jesus's love for us. Right after the skits we asked if any one wanted Jesus as their Lord and savior or prayer. 5-7 families came up. By that time it was dark and we had not planned for that. We had no light. So the Safeway that we share a parking lot with had their lights. So after prayer we did the free raffle for the 19 bikes. And everyone was loving it, parents and kids, adults and youth. They were reading their ticket from their cell phone light or the safeway light. And not one person left because it was dark!!! There were so many stories of kids needing bikes to get to school or a family just had 4 bikes stolen from them a little bit ago and they received 2 bikes that night. A little girl I know loves princesses and got a princess bike. And another little girl won a bike and would not get off of it. Even when it was time for every child to receive a toy she just sat on her bike NOT moving and didn't want to get off not matter how much the mom tried and some of our members tried she loved her new bike so much.

So after the raffle we had two lines. 2 mini buses were packed with toys with tables in front to put some of the toys. And the kids each received at least one toy. A person came up to me and said "Okay Dess all the kids have received a toy can we tell them to come back and get as much as they want" so that is what I did I got on the mic and said just that and you could see kids running to get back in line. I even saw a family that was almost to their car turn back around to get more toys. It was amazing.

And Guess what we still had toys left over. Just like God promised. It was a night I will never forget. My God took care of everything from toys, to books, to bikes, to the help we needed.

And this same God who takes care of me can supplying all your needs according to His glorious riches which have been given to us in Christ Jesus -Phillipians 4:19

FREE TOY GIVE-AWAY!!!

Supplying Needs is Teaming up with Victory in Praise Church to have a Free Toy Give-Away for the community. There will be balloon animals, face painting, skits and more. If you have any used toys, games, or bicycles at home that would like to donate for this cause you can contact us at (209) 401 5053.

God Bless,
Supplying Needs