New Date for Naperville Chef Showdown 2020
Loaves & Fishes Community Services is thrilled to announce Naperville Chef Showdown, “Battle of the Champions” will be on Wednesday, April 15, from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
2018 Night to End Hunger Photo Gallery
Thank you! Thank you for helping make Night to End Hunger successful, with more than $330,000 raised to help struggling families. WE DON’T TRANSFORM LIVES AND END HUNGER ALONE! WE DO IT TOGETHER!
Celebration of Compassion recognizes distinguished service of volunteers and supporters
[imagebrowser id=8]On November 8th, Loaves & Fishes held the Celebration of Compassion at the Celebration Community Life Center in Naperville to announce this year’s honorees. Guests included major supporters as well as volunteers who donated more than 100 hours of time during the year ended June 30th. Charles McLimans presented the awards, donated by John… Read more »
The Government’s Role In Helping Us Live Generously
from The Far Edge of Promise on December 27, 2012: As the U.S. federal government approaches the January 1 “fiscal cliff” deadline, there continues to be discussion around closing tax “loopholes” in an effort to increase tax receipts. As has been discussed previously, the charitable gift deduction has gotten swept up into this conversation. It would… Read more »
Community Garden Update for August 27
from Ron Ory, Naperville Community Gardeners: For those of you away for the weekend, we had our most significant rainfall of the year: 3.5 inches at the plots. Yielding another 75 pounds of produce. We’re averaging over 200 lbs per week. We’re nearing 1,800 lbs for the season. Do I hear 3,000? We’re also adding some cut flowers, leaving enough for the birds and the bees. Our most prolific are cosmos and sunflowers We’ve also got some unusual ones, like this celoseus. We’re not only doing good for the year, but lookin’ good, too! Yay, TEAM!
1,700 Pounds of Fresh Produce and Counting!
August 26 update from Naperville Community Gardeners’ Ron Ory: Fifty pounds the hard way – no ten pound zucchini! We may not get any sprouts, but they do grow here! Likewise for tomatilloes. We’re at 1,700 pounds and counting. Great rain dance by Jan Hummel – too bad I didn’t capture it on film!
Making a Difference for Someone in Need
From Ron Ory, photographer for Naperville Community Gardeners: Sometimes one little tomato (or six): Or one big one: Can make a difference for someone in need: Putting us at 1,500 pounds for the year: Way to go Team! http://www.napervillecommunitygardeners.org/
Gardeners Update from the Flower and Garden Show
From Ron Ory: Yeah, Team! We were curious how we were doing, at least on the quality, so we entered some of our produce, herbs and perennials in the Naperville Community Gardeners annual Flower and Garden Show. It’s free, so all it took was preparing the materials according to the show guide. We may not have gotten the big prizes, but we won lots of ribbons and Loaves & Fishes still got the produce! These are our beets, turnips, leeks and potatoes! Some of the tomatoes and squash we’ve been growing. Some of the perennial are from our garden. That pumpkin was ours and got a blue ribbon. Did Jan influence the judges? She was helping as a clerk and got some tips for next year. I’m still counting the ribbons and will report the results shortly. MEANWHILE, YESTERDAY’S DELIVERIES PUT US OVER 1,400 POUNDS FOR THE YEAR! (I may have to add another column to our POUND-O-METER, since it only goes to 3000 pounds.) Results: We had 51 different entries, some items provided more than one entry. We received ribbons for 47 of the 51. Not bad for the first time and little preparation work. It provides a measure of how well we’re doing and a benchmark for next year, should we want to enter the show.
Community Garden Plot Harvest Update
from Ron Ory on August 8: We’re in full harvesting mode. It now takes at least two hours to harvest, wash and weigh each time. I thank the “weed” ladies and waterers for allowing me to pick. With today’s harvest we’re over 900 pounds and have just begun the prime season for tomatoes. Pictures:
Master Gardeners tend 4 plots to donate produce to food pantry
“All of their donated produce goes to Loaves & Fishes Food Community Pantry in Naperville, whose mission is to end hunger and empower lives. In June alone, they served more than 9,000 people, or 2,331 households and 4,051 children. “What beautiful produce and tremendous work by the Master Gardeners,” said Charles McLimas, executive director of Loaves & Fishes, in a letter to the group.” Read entire Daily Herald article . Additional pictures: