Thank You to the Community!

The St. Joe’s drive-up distribution project is the culmination of many months of planning and was truly a labor of love. It has been made possible through the generosity and giving spirit, for which the Fox Valley is known. 

I want to give a public thank-you to all that helped, including:

• Miron Construction, who very generously donated all inside work and our outside canopies. Miron has truly been an example of giving back to the community through their work on this project. As soon as we sent out requests for bid, they responded that they would do this project for us at no cost. Every time we made a change, or an unexpected problem arose, they met every challenge with grace and generosity. A special thank-you to Brian Pendergast and Bryce Boden of Miron and their team, who were all wonderful to work with.
  
  
• Performa – Brian Netzel and Ryan Bakke for helping to get this project off the ground.
  
  
• The Basic Needs Giving Partnership Fund and the JJ Keller Foundation for grants to cover our outside work.
  
  
• The COVID-19 Community Response Fund for a grant to cover equipment and technical work.
  
  
• To all other contractors who went the extra mile, donating all or part of their services, including:
  Appleton Lathing Corp.
  Appleton Steel
  August Winter & Sons Inc.
  Corcoran Glass & Paint
  CC&N
  Fastsigns of Appleton
  JF Ahern Co.
  Macco’s Commercial Interiors
  Mathfab
  Meyer Services
  Northern Metal & Roofing Co., Inc.
  VOE Power & Systems
  Your generosity will ensure that St. Joe’s is able to continue serving for years to come.

• For our board president, Jeff Schweitzer, whose expertise and knowledge has been invaluable during the build. It is amazing how God put just the right person at the helm of our program in time for this project. In addition, thanks to board member Mike Ryder, for his IT support and encouragement to install conveyors!
  
  
• For our St. Joe’s staff team, who have all worked tirelessly this past year through constant change and adjustments and have done all they could to make the process successful each and every day.
  
  
• And to our volunteers, who kept serving no matter what came their way! I can’t say enough about their giving spirits!

Someone asked me last week what we had learned from going through this build. At the time, I had a hard time answering. Since then, I have given it a lot of thought. The learning hasn’t come only because of the build. The last 12 months has been a time of constant learning for us, but the biggest takeaway for me was that the little details didn’t matter. Ultimately what mattered was that we were able to consistently provide food to those who needed assistance. All of you have played some part in that work, ensuring continued service for our neighbors who are struggling.

I would like to offer my most sincere gratitude for all who played a part, large or small, in this project.

Thank you!

Monica Clare
Executive Director