Garden Greens & Healthy Families

The last few years have brought many changes to Circle of Concern. One of the most popular of them has been our on-site garden, which produced nearly 2,000 pounds of colorful, varied fruits and vegetable for our clients in 2022.

Plans are underway for this spring’s planting, and volunteers are poised to get seeds in the ground and harvest in our clients’ kitchens. We also look forward to the generous surplus that our home-gardening friends bring to share. Local church and community gardens bring such abundance, too. Throughout the summer, beautiful tomatoes, greens, beans and herbs are eagerly chosen by happy clients.

These foods are on the front lines against a common term in the vocabulary of poverty and hunger – nutrition insecurity. While many of us have heard of food deserts and food insecurity, nutrition insecurity gets at the heart of something we all face. Even when foods are inexpensive and easily available, they often don’t contain much in the way of the vitamins and other nutrients we need to thrive. Circle is staring down nutrition insecurity.

Each month at Circle, we offer three featured food items to boost the nutritional value of the groceries our clients take home. In April, those items are collard greens, herbs and the plant-based protein tofu, each of which is packed with vitamins and other nutrients. When combined with our traditional shelf-stable items, milk, eggs, fruit, potatoes, carrots, meat and more, we bring the foods we offer closer to recommended dietary guidelines offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To learn more about these guidelines, please visit MyPlate.gov.

Your gifts make this nutritional bounty possible. In a world where processed foods are often less expensive than healthier fresh foods, your support gives our clients a chance for real nutritional security. On their behalf, thank you!

COC April 2023 Enews

• Drive-Up Donors!
• Nutrition Insecurity/Garden Greens
• 2023 Golf Tournament

Drive-Through Food Drive at Circle

Saturday, April 22 – 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

112 St. Louis Avenue in Valley Park
Hosted by King of Kings Lutheran Church

Amazon Wish List »

Saturday warehouse donation drop-offs are back!

During Covid, we couldn’t take donations in our warehouse on Saturday, but we’re open on Saturday now, for your convenience! Cap off a busy week with a feel-good drop-off of needed foods on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Our volunteers will be happy to help you unload.

Check out our Amazon Wish List for items we need the most now. We welcome your support with foods that our client families choose most often … and that are depleted most quickly. Your neighbors-in-need thank you!

COC April 2023 Enews

• Drive-Up Donors!
• Nutrition Insecurity/Garden Greens
• 2023 Golf Tournament

The Fairway is Full!

Our player roster for the 17^th Annual Circle of Concern Golf Tournament is SOLD OUT! We are grateful for our friends who will join us on the links on Monday, May 22 at Aberdeen Golf Club in Eureka!*

There’s still time to support Circle with a sponsorship to promote your business, club, team or family to a full flight of happy golfers. Levels range from $150 to $1,500, and we will be happy to provide signage and multiple mentions at the event and afterwards.

Sign up to sponsor here, visit circleofconcern.org or scan with your phone to sponsor online!

*Players on foursomes that are already reserved but just need to pay, please contact Nancy@circleofconcern.org.

COC April 2023 Enews

• Drive-Up Donors!
• Nutrition Insecurity/Garden Greens
• 2023 Golf Tournament

We love our scholarship program which, this year, is awarding 12 renewal scholarships to students already in post-high school education and nine scholarships to new students fresh out of high school. Here are just a few reasons why we love this program so much:

• Several students are entering medical fields, including a future nurse, physician’s assistant and neurosurgeon.
• Two awardees are the first members of their families to attend college; their entire families are rallied behind them and their success.
• One student opted to finish the last two years of high school remotely to save money and, more importantly, to keep chronically ill family members safe. She graduated with honors and plans for a vibrant future.
• Another awardee is attending a local private university, living at home and carefully stewarding every available dollar for school; this student remarked on his commitment to be frugal with dollars and work hard to succeed.
• Our students are entering diverse fields. In addition to those aiming for the medical world, we have those preparing for careers in animal sciences, automotive technology, architectural engineering, business and more.

Congratulations to all our 2023 scholarship awardees!

COC October 2022 Enews

• Votes are Counted!
• Holiday Adoption Open
• Program Snapshot: Scholarship

The holidays start early at Circle!

For the past two years, thanks to your generous support, every Circle client received a gift card by early December to celebrate the holiday season, instead of receiving gifts at a large, crowded event. This year, as we’ve inched toward more normal times, we asked our clients which they preferred from the Holiday Adoption program. Overwhelmingly, our clients reported that the gift cards gave them the most flexibility in giving their loved ones the most fulfilling holiday.

As a result, although we all miss the holiday fun of shopping for our adopted families, we have decided to continue with the $50 gift card distribution. One card per family member will be given out at monthly pantry appointments, starting in November.

Will you please help us reach our goal of providing a warm and bright holiday season for up to 2,400 people who rely on Circle? Just let us know how many people you’d like to adopt, at $50 per person, and note “Holiday Adoption” on the memo line of your gift or click the Holiday Adoption button here.

Thank you for being the best of the season for Circle families.

COC October 2022 Enews

• Votes are Counted!
• Holiday Adoption Open
• Program Snapshot: Scholarship

With curbside service – and pre-filled bags – over, clients are happily back in the pantry, choosing their own favorite foods and flavors. Offering a client choice food pantry is important for some very important reasons. First and foremost, it affords all Circle of Concern families the dignity of making their own decisions about that most elemental thing – what is served on their own dinner tables.

Another huge benefit of client choice is that it means less waste of foods that people don’t enjoy. When clients choose foods they know they will eat, they, in essence, vote for those foods and against the things they don’t put in their carts. We pay attention to what is chosen and what isn’t, and that informs what we ask for from our donors and which fresh foods we purchase. Voting is participation! We are grateful for our clients who vote for what they want for their families, and we are grateful for YOU who make these choices possible!

Since reopening the food pantry, some food items are definitely favorites:

Popular foods right now:

• Beef items, chili, canned chicken, canned pasta
• Ready-to-eat soups, including cream of potato and chowder
• Tomato products
• Kid-friendly cereal
• Fresh fruits and vegetables

Foods we have an abundant stock of right now:

• Canned tuna
• O-shaped oat cereals
• Corn flakes
• Canned beans

COC October 2022 Enews

• • Votes are Counted!
  • Holiday Adoption Open
  • Program Snapshot: Scholarship

Coming soon to circleofconcern.org – visit our website often to catch our new pantry videos, featuring Circle’s own dietetics pros! Virginia, Becky and Pantry Director Michelle are producing quick videos about the food we share and the nutritional impact it has on our families. Heart-healthy options, the inner beauty of greens, the greatness of grains – it’s all here at Circle!

When you invest in the work of Circle, you invest in the health and well-being of your neighbors. Please consider donating today to help the work continue.

COC March 2022 Enews

• Our Clients Speak
• Return to the Course With Us!
• Veggies & Videos in the Pantry!

COC March 2022 Enews

• Our Clients Speak
• Return to the Course With Us!
• Veggies & Videos in the Pantry!

In late 2021, we asked our clients how they feel about Circle of Concern, our programs and their experiences here. In future months, we’ll share the abundant data the survey yielded. Today, though, we’d like to offer a snippet of what our families think about Circle.

• When asked about the fresh fruits and vegetables in his groceries, a 60-year-old man said, “You gave me okra last summer. I thought I really did not like okra before. I love okra now!”
• A mother of three school-age children reported that she prefers getting a gift card for summer food for her children, rather than a bag of kid-friendly food to bridge the gap in free or reduced-cost meals at school. “We have several life-threatening allergies so it is helpful for me to pick snacks my kids can eat.”
• When asked if he ever ate less because there wasn’t enough money for food, a senior responded “Yes…my wife has severe dementia and eats a lot because she forgets she has already eaten.”
• A single mom, referring to the same question about skipping meals because there wasn’t enough money for food, offered “When my children are at their father’s, I do not make dinner for myself.”
• Commenting on our Birthday Club, a young mother praised our volunteers, “Everyone is so nice! Especially Bobbie – Bobbie is a gift to everyone she meets. XOXO.”

COC March 2022 Enews

• Our Clients Speak
• Return to the Course With Us!
• Veggies & Videos in the Pantry!

Longtime Circle of Concern volunteers Boyd and Barbara Jones say their introduction to the organization’s vital work came when they attended a presentation by the organization’s former executive director more than 15 years ago.

Until that point, the St. Louis County couple didn’t realize how serious a problem food insecurity was in their community. Understanding the scope of the challenge sparked a determination to take action: Barbara began volunteering at Circle in 2008: now she works in reception and assists with data entry. Boyd signed up to help a year later; he’s currently a pantry shift captain and will serve as a case worker once the building opens again for pantry shopping and in-person meetings.

“The struggle faced by so many to feed their families continues to make a lasting impression,” Boyd said. “Circle’s approach seamlessly fits our personal philosophy and conviction. Barbara and I have always believed that no one, regardless of individual circumstances or causes, should go hungry in a nation with the resources available to the United States.”

Their years of service at Circle of Concern have strengthened the Joneses’ confidence in the organization’s value. “The staff is unfailingly supportive, consistent, encouraging and beautifully coordinated in its efforts to maximize Circle’s effectiveness in addressing our clients’ needs,” Boyd said. “We continually see first-hand the difference Circle makes in the lives of the hundreds of families who are our clients.”

From volunteering, it was a logical step to include Circle of Concern in the couple’s estate plans. Barbara said their choice to focus their resources on this organization was a strategic one.

“It is important to us to know that we can make significant contributions to a select few, mostly local institutions that can and do change lives around us for the better,” she said. “We believe Circle will be around for a long time, and want to do what we can to ensure that it will be.”

Boyd sees his and Barbara’s contributions to Circle as “our own little slice of immortality,” helping to shape the future of the organization after they are gone.

Even as they help prepare for Circle’s future, the Joneses keep their commitment to enhancing its presence through their volunteer work. “Circle is, simply, where we know we belong in pursuit of our desire to give back in appreciation of our good fortune.”