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November 2019

Dear Friends:

Greetings and joyful blessings from all of us at The Waysmeet Center!  We are looking forward to 2020 and continuing efforts to nurture communities of belonging and to serve the needs of our community and the world. Your support is appreciated and helps to make a difference!

We are in the midst of looking strategically ahead and are excited about the prospects for doing even more in the future.  The Waysmeet Center is a justice-centered organization; a model of beloved community that lives out these values in everything that we do.  We want to continue serving, nurturing, and cultivating future leaders, and provide a place of belonging, equity, and justice for all people, especially those on the margins in our society.

Waysmeet continues to serve people through the Cornucopia Food Pantry, Food Justice, Rescue, and Recovery program, Community Dinners and drum circles, Flames of Hope program, internships and leadership opportunities, small groups and events, residential community, and active engagement in the world.

The Waysmeet Center has been working at this for over 90 years, and the ability to adapt and change to meet community needs has been critical to our success.  We have identified some important steps to help guide us into a sustainable future, and invite you to be a part of making our future as strong and fruitful as the present and past.  Building on resources and support we have graciously been given over the past couple of years by donors through the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, we have not only enhanced and expanded our programs, but have taken more time to assess our future direction.  Towards that end, we hope to institute the following in 2020:

  • Support a sustainable operations plan that will allow us to close an annual budget gap of approximately $10,000, and move towards a full staffing vision of 2.5 full-time equivalent staff members, and enhance our programs that do so much with so little.
  • A strategic planning vision and development plan that will help determine future programming, operations, organizational priorities, and how we will fund and sustain them. This initiative is estimated to cost $15,000. 
  • A capital projects program to enhance our stewardship of our physical facilities and enable us to continue to be on stable financial footing. The top four priorities cost approximately $100,000: debt retirement, driveway and sidewalk replacement and accessibility improvements, energy and sustainability upgrades, and interior renovations to community and residential spaces.

I have been blessed to spend the past 22 years of my vocational journey with this organization.  The lessons that I have learned, the young adults mentored and nurtured, the community members that I have walked alongside, and the tremendous stories and people of inspiration and hope have changed my life.  Please join me in helping this incredible organization, this Beloved Community, continue to make a difference today and long into the future.

Waysmeet needs you! As a non-profit organization, support for our annual budget and programs relies on individual donations.  You may give online here, or by mailing a check.  You may also make a directed gift for one the Waysmeet initiatives noted above, and contribute to one of our online fundraisers and special events.

Thank you!

Larry Brickner-Wood, Chaplain and Executive Director

Waysmeet Board of Directors: Scott Bogle, Kristen Butterfield-Ferrell, Sofia Lemons, John Mince, Kylee Noga, Vince Noga, & Aubrey Porter

YOUR DONATION MAKES A DIFFERENCE!

Highlights of significant services and achievements in 2019:

  • Over 1,500 people fed annually at the Community Dinners and drum circles. Since 2005, over 20,000 people fed.
  • 795 food baskets distributed throughout the year. This means 3,180 people were fed with 100,000 pounds of food distributed at a value of over $95,000.
  • 4,000 annual patron visits at the Cornucopia Food Pantry representing over 16,000 separate food distributions to families and food valued at over $100,000.
  • Over 250,000 pounds of food rescued in our Food Rescue and Recovery Project, involving over 20 volunteers and 10 local partners.
  • Over 400 student and community volunteers utilized and 12 internships provided.
  • Our Flames of Hope program assisted over 25 people with housing assistance, health care costs, educational costs, support services, car repairs, bicycle replacements, legal assistance, utility bills, rental assistance, and more. In 2019, over $50,000 in assistance was provided. Since 2003, over 200 people were served with assistance valued at over $200,000.