Please donate to the Give to the Max

Give to the Max Day is around the corner on November 15, 2018!

This Give to the Max Day, help us build a brighter and healthier future for Minnesotans!

Let’s come together to create a Minnesota where our grandparents have the peace-of-mind that comes with a full cupboard and our kids arrive at school bright-eyed, ready to learn.

Let’s come together to help serve the food insecure populations of Minnesota to put healthy food options in the cupboards of those in need. Through your support, the Fruit of the Vine serves thousands of people each year!

When you donate to Vineyard Community Services and the Fruit of the Vine Food Shelf today, your donations will go to sustain food shelf operations in Burnsville and Saint Paul, Minnesota that serve over six thousand households each year.

Click HERE to link to our Give to the Max donation page.

Spring Spree – Save the date March 16th

You will not want to miss the upcoming Spring Spree fund raising event to benefit the Fruit of the Vine Food Shelf. With locations in both Burnsville and Saint Paul, the food shelf is making a huge impact against food insecurity!

This year’s Spring Spree will feature Chef David Aguilera and his team of culinary experts. Dinner testing and sampling is on-going 🙂

The event is planned to start at 5:30pm on Saturday March 16th at the South Metro Vineyard Church facility. The silent auction will be located in the lobby with dinner and entertainment in the auditorium.

The event organizing team is looking for sponsors in several packages labeled, Elite, Premier and Partner programs. The Silent Auction cannot be successful without the participation of our local business communities. Please donate your goods or services by clicking here.

Advance tickets can be purchased in advance by clicking here tickets are $25 each or, $175 for a table of eight.

Please call us at 952-595-5980 ext 111 to setup your sponsorship or arrange for an auction donation.

Give to the Max Day is November 15th – Start Donating NOW

We are excited to be participating in this years “Give to the Max” day on November 15th.

By donating to the Fruit of the Vine Food Shelf at the www.givemn.org site, your giving will be matched and may help us win additional prizes! How? Every gift made on GiveMN.org will be entered into additional prize drawings for a GiveMN Golden Ticket which will be awarded as often as every 10 minutes. Your gift of $10 or more could instantly turn into an extra $500, $1,000 or even $10,000 for us!

Our goal is to raise $15,000, and you can help us reach it!

Click here to link to our GiveMN giving page!

 

 

Our Foundation Supporters in 2018

We receive grant financial support to fund our programs and increase capacity and infrastructure. In 2018, we have received funding from the following philanthropists:

  • Otto Bremer Trust
  • Richard Schultze Family Foundation
  • J.A. Wedum Foundation
  • Hunger Solutions

We thank these charitable organizations for caring and trusting in our vision.

Our family extends even farther through individual donors. We depend on people like you. Please join us to help close the “missing meal” gap by donating funds, food or volunteer time. Together we can give our neighbors the hope and stability they need, after all, we are all neighbors.

You can give by clicking on donate.

Fresh Produce Summer Distribution Saint Paul

This summer the Fruit of the Vine Saint Paul and La Vina de Saint Paul will be distributing farm fresh produce to our communities on the second and fourth Fridays of each month starting in July and ending in October. Here’s the planned schedule and remember all distributions are from 4pm to 6pm:

July 13th and 27th

August 10th and 24th

September 14th and 28th

October 12th and 26th

The distribution will be setup in the First Covenant Church of Saint Paul’s parking lot (1280 Arcade Street, Saint Paul) on the community garden’s side. Our neighbors for the distribution need to bring a bag or produce carrying box. You will need to register then go down the line and select your produce items with assistance from one of our great volunteers!

If you are interested in volunteering please contact our volunteer coordinator at volunteering@vcsmn.org or (952) 595-5980 ext 207. Find us on facebook at www.facebook.com/vcsmn and join the community by “Liking” us.

Fruit of the Vine Update and Events

Dear Supporters,

It’s the summer months again when Vineyard Community Services (“VCS”) asks our community supporters to consider donating to sustain our operations and take advantage of several matching grant opportunities.

VCS is operating our emergency hunger relief program called the Fruit of the Vine Food Shelf for the eleventh year! During 2017, the food shelf served 77,376 multiple visits by individuals, or 21,224 household visits. A total of 1,815,837 pounds of food was distributed, averaging 85.6 pounds per household visit. The service if founded on the strength of our volunteers and supporters like you!

During November of 2017, we also opened the Fruit of the Vine Saint Paul at 1280 Arcade Street at our partner Faith Covenant Church facility. This area is both underserved and has the highest unemployment and poverty rates in the state. The food shelf continues to grow as it serves more of the Saint Paul neighborhoods with nutritious foods.

Your donation is a crucial investment into the lives of the people we serve. Last year, 3,934 households ended services with the Fruit of the Vine Food Shelf becoming self-sufficient and no longer needing our food resources. You made the difference with your support.

We ask that you consider donating during June, July and August as we have foundational support to match your giving. The J.A. Wedum Foundation will donate $5,000 this summer based on giving as well as the Otto Bremer Trust which is providing a 1:1 match, up to $6,230! The Open Your Heart Foundation to the Hungry and Homeless is also providing a July matching challenge grant to further assist our sustainability.

Thank you again for supporting the hunger cause,  please consider donating, your gift will double the impact this summer!

Very best regards,

Brian Geraty

Executive Director and Pastor

 

Join (volunteering) us and save the date at the following summer events:

May 26th at 11am-2pm Sorting Event

June 2nd at 11am-2pm Sorting Event

 August 24th Fresh Produce Distribution at 3pm at 1280 Arcade Street, Saint Paul
July 9th Summer Swing Charity Golf Tournament Shotgun start at noon September 14th Fresh Produce Distribution at 3pm at 1280 Arcade Street, Saint Paul
July 13th Fresh Produce Distribution at 3pm at 1280 Arcade Street, Saint Paul September 28th Fresh Produce Distribution at 3pm at 1280 Arcade Street, Saint Paul
July 27th Fresh Produce Distribution at 3pm at 1280 Arcade Street, Saint Paul October 12th Fresh Produce Distribution at 3pm at 1280 Arcade Street, Saint Paul
August 10th Fresh Produce Distribution at 3pm at 1280 Arcade Street, Saint Paul October 26th Fresh Produce Distribution at 3pm at 1280 Arcade Street, Saint Paul

Food Drive Sorting event this Saturday, May 26th from 11am to 2pm

Come out this Saturday from 11am to 2pm to sort and quality check all the dry goods we collected during the U.S. Postal Carriers Food Drive.

We have around 51,000 pounds to go!

Join us in this fun project!

Sorting will be setup outside next to the Citi-Cargo trailers in the west parking lot of the South Metro Vineyard Church.

U.S. Postal Carriers ‘Stamp Out Hunger’ Food Drive May 12th from 1 pm to 5 pm

Come join us on May 12th for the annual U.S. Postal Carriers ‘Stamp Out Hunger’ Food Drive.  Each year the postal carriers deliver their collected non-perishable food donations from the families in Burnsville and Savage to our facility at South Metro Vineyard Church. We usually collect around 30,000lbs of food from our neighbors!

We need teams of volunteers to help in 2-hour shifts from 1 pm to 3 pm and then from 3 pm to 5 pm. Volunteers will:

  • Unload food donations collected by the carriers into ‘totes’ of palleted storage bins for later sorting. Postal carriers will start arriving at 1pm, come a little early.
  • Some volunteers will move the totes by pallet jacks to the forklift area for transfer to the donated storage trailers (Thank you CitiCargo & Storage!) and our warehouse.

If you have any questions, please contact Kim our Volunteer Coordinator at kim@vcsmn.org or 952-595-5980 extension 107.

Vineyard Community Serives
13798 Parkwood Drive
Burnsville, MN 55337

Reminder: Minnesota FoodShare March Campaign is on!

It’s March and that means it’s the Minnesota FoodShare March Campaign! This is so important to VCS—it’s one of our biggest months for food and fund drives. We rely on the food and funds collected to get us through the next few months of operations into the summer. We also receive additional matched funds from Minnesota FoodShare based on how much we raise. The more we raise, the more we receive.

Here’s how you can get involved:

Host a food drive: at your workplace, school, congregation, or community organization. Our goal is to have 25 food drives this month! We’ve created lots of resources to help you plan a successful food drive. View our toolkit.

Host a fund drive: Raising funds for VCS is a great team-building feel-good activity. VCS can purchase up to ten times the amount of food with your dollars. Contact Tina for more info.

Donate now: Please consider making a gift to VCS this month! Every dollar makes a difference, and VCS uses your dollars well!

You can register for our fund raising dinner theater by clicking here. This event on Saturday night will feature an exclusive dinner, entertainment by local magician with raffles and a silent auction. Please join the fun and support the Fruit of the Vine Food Shelf!  Bremer Bank is our Premier Sponsor of this event.

For you golfers, Fostar Communications is the Title Sponsor for this year’s July 9th Summer Swing Charity Golf Tournament. You can register for the tournament by clicking here. Registering in March will assist us in our March campaign and assure you a place in the tournament.

Our neighbors in need work so hard to provide good lives for their children and families, and we are proud to provide help where it’s needed.  Last year, VCS helped 15,186 people through food services, homelessness prevention, and employment assistance.

The board of directors invites you – Spring Spree 2018

The Vineyard Community Services board of directors invites you to join us Saturday, March 24th at 6pm for the annual Spring Spree dinner theater fund raiser for the Fruit of the Vine Food Shelf. Doors open at 5:30pm. This event is centered around dinner prepared by Chef David Aguilera, entertainment from a local illusionist Larry Kohlow, along with raffles, games and a silent auction. It will be an fun-filled evening with an opportunity to support our community service organization that touches the lives of over four thousand families each year.

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE EVENING…

Dinner – 6pm
Dinner will be served ‘buffet’ style in our auditorium by Chef David Aguilera:
Bacon-wrapped Chicken Chicken Breast coated with herb flavored cream cheese, rolled up and wrapped in bacon accompanied by Garlic Mashed Potatoes and a bed of Asparagus with Red Peppers. Of course dessert
follows. Chef David makes a special dining experience!

Entertainment – 7pm
Illusionist Larry Kahlow will be entertaining the Spring Spree starting at 7pm. Larry is a local (Burnsville) illusionist/magician and owns the Eagle Magic and Joke Store since 1971. Yes, that’s nearly five decades! His shop is known as the “Oldest magic shop in America!”

Silent Auction “Shop for a Cause” and Raffle – 8pm

Vineyard Community Services is one of the thriftiest nonprofit organizations utilizing 95.6% of every dollar donated directly to support our hunger relief services.

We need your support to maintain our services and to continue to make a difference in the fight against poverty. You can help in the following way:

  • Purchase your Spring Spree Event ticket HERE
  • Donate a product or service for our raffle and silent auction,
  • Become an event sponsor, or
  • Become a volunteer.

TICKETS AND SPONSOR PACKAGES…

  • $20 in advance Event Ticket (includes one raffle ticket)
  • $25 at the door (includes one raffle ticket)
  • $180 Table Sponsor (includes 10 event tickets (Meal and raffles)
  • $150 Table Sponsor (includes 8 event tickets (Meal and raffles)
  • $5 additional raffle ticket at the door

Sponsor Packages:

Elite – $1,000 – Thank you Bremer Bank!
• Table for 10
• Premium logo presence in social media (all), brochure, and marketing materials (signage and video loop)

Premier – $500 – Thank you South Metro Vineyard Church in memory of Dennis Walker
• Table for 8
• Logo presence in social media (weekly), brochure, and marketing materials

Partner – $250 – Thank you River Heights Vineyard Church!
• Table for 4
• Logo presence in social media, brochure, and marketing materials

We are eager to hear from you!  Just call our event committee at 952-595-980 ext. 111 and we will walk you through the steps to get involved.

Will you join us today and become a partner with Vineyard Community Services in the fight against hunger?  Because no one should go hungry.