August 6, 2025—6:00 p.m.—Nazareth
Call to Order: 6:03 p.m. – Present: Ruth Thompson, Cathy Laube. Pastor Elizabeth Bier, Lyle Roe, Chuck Petersen, Cindy Cardinal and Noel Barteck.
Treasurer’s Report: Ruth reported a balance of $5,712.49. St. John’s continues their monthly donation of $25.00, Withee Days collection brought in $110.00, Emmanuel Church donated $250.00, Nazareth gave $500.00 and St. Katherine’s contributed a total of $750.00 since the first of the year. Lyle moved, seconded by Chuck to accept the Treasurers Report, all ayes, so the motion carried.
Ordering Specialists report: Cathy indicated that we had been filling 36 bags during the school year and 12 for summer school students. The question was asked if there had been any problems with the groups forgetting their assignments, and she said there was not. A few times (when only a few bags were needed) she would fill them and Terry would transport them to school.
Feed My People input for the program: Tuesday, August 12 will be our on-site visit: 10:00 a.m. – Owen-Withee (Nazareth) and 12:00 p.m. – W-O-W Kid’s Meals. Pastor Elizabeth gave us a heads up that Indianhead will be closing their Medford and Ladysmith food pantries this fall.
Feedback from school: Elementary Open House is 8/21 from 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. In the past Cathy and Noel have had a table during this event, with a display of a typical weekend food bag, enrollment forms and an opportunity for parents to ask questions about our program.
Julie VanArk was in a meeting, and Stephanie will be on maternity leave when school starts, so Noel talked with Deisy about possible modifications. After the third Thursday of September, we’ll have a better idea of numbers. For the time being she thought that if we keep the number of bags at 36 there will be plenty. Last year if there were left over bags the needy kids could take home a bag each weekend. Deisy said there are a number of students who will be going into Junior High this fall. Pastor Elizabeth made the motion to extend our distribution to the Junior High, Cathy seconded, all ayes, motion carried. Noel will talk with Morgan about including the 7th and 8th grade. Some expressed the idea that those students might not feel comfortable taking bags of food on the bus.
Set date for next meeting – Wednesday, September 24 at 6:00 p.m. at Nazareth, unless a meeting is not needed.
Other business: Noel mentioned that last year the Owen UCC hosted an event for filling, and wrapping, shoe box Christmas gifts for all of the participants in the program. Several area churches participated. We should start getting the word out so more churches can donate items for this project, and perhaps participate in this year’s activity. The UCC has already collected enough shoe boxes and stuffed animals for the project. Caps and mittens, school supplies, coloring books, scarves, sticky notes, note pads, and small games, etc. are still needed. Items can be dropped off at Emmanuel Lutheran (Longwood), Nazareth Lutheran, Owen UCC, the Owen Library, the Withee Village Hall and bags should be marked “Shoe Box Donation.” Noel will ask Karen Swiggum to post the information on Facebook. We will tentatively undertake this project on Sunday, December 14, at the Owen UCC. There will be a pot luck following the UCC church service, and wrapping will commence after the meal.
The Clark County Community Foundation might be a source of some funding for the W-O-W Kids’ Meals Program. Noel will check into this.
A motion to adjourn was made by Ruth at 6:48 p.m., Cathy seconded and there were all ayes.