Monday, December 29, 2008

Manna From Heaven serves over 7000 for Christmas!

Christmas was quite festive last week in Myra, KY. After all was said and done. Manna from Heaven provided Christmas for more than 7000 people that included children and elderly. (This included the local nursing homes.) This almost doubled last years total.

Because of the economic times, they are NOT receiving the donations that they have in the past. Lois has paid out more than 2500.00 in truck rentals and gas for food and this years Christmas bounty. The truck that was given to Manna needs some repairs before it can go on the road. Once the truck is in service, it will only cost Lois the gas to drive to Covington, KY to pick up food. This is approximately 150.00

Next big program is Community Day in April. Needed items are: SEEDS -vegetable and flower. PLANT MARKERS. GARDEN GLOVES. Ebay is great for these items. Baby Chicks would be appreciated. The incubators can only go so far.

These items can be mailed to:

Focus America Seed Project
PO Box 43
Myra, KY 41549

Friday, December 19, 2008

Christmas Update!

Feed the Children, Mission of Hope (Tenn) and King's Benevolence (VA) have sent toys for over 2000 thousand children!! Another truck is due tomorrow and Manna from Heaven feels that they will be able to meet the needs of all the children this Christmas. She feels that God has "answered their prayers."

The next big project is the Community Day, set for April. As stated in my last blog, they will need seeds for close to 1500 families. Average 10 packs per family and that equals 15 thousand seed packs. A donor has matched Heifer International donation and they are now 2/3 of their goal. A donor has also pledged 200 baby chicks to be given away.

Seeds needed: corn, bean, tomato, strawberry, pea, cucumber, watermelon, cantelopes, pepper. lettuce and onion bulbs. Any and all flower seeds.

Please send to:
Focus America Seed Project
PO Box 43
Myra, KY 41549

Thank you for reading this blog and for all the support you have given now and in the future.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Have a safe and Happy Holiday Season!

Just wanted to write and update the readers of the Focus America Blog on Myra. Everyone is hurt in this country with the poor economic picture. Even communities like Manna from Heaven are being hurt. Yes - that area survives on foodstamps, welfare, WIC Social Security and disability. BUT - they also survive on the generosity and donations of strangers. That has been cut dramatically. The food Pantry is almost bare and has been like that for several months. Manna from Heaven has been accepted by Feed the Children, but they have no food to give them. Lois rents a truck for close to 400.00 monthly and they are able to obtain noodles, sauce to feed 300 for a month. Christmas will be very lean this year. Today Lois has enough toys for maybe 400 children. She usually services 3000. She is praying for a shipment next week from Mission of Hope for more toys.

That is why the Seed and Poultry Project is so important. This food, with a bit of work, will feed so mmany families. Fresh vegetables can be frozen or canned to feed so many people. Chickens can be raised for eggs and meat. I ask anyone that anyone who read's this blog to please give a bit to Manna from Heaven. Seeds give the gift of life to these people. There is a great need for tomato, corn, bean and STRAWBERRY seeds. The nice thing about strawberries is that they come back each year and some gardens will see them double in size. Seeds are being sold at great low prices at www.ebay.com. Just search for vegetable seed lot. Manna has over 5 thousand packets of seeds. We had estimated a need for 10 to 12 thousand seed packets. The number of registered families is growing each week. It would be safe to say we need closer to 15 thousand seed packets so that everyone will have the tools to grow their own food.

Lois also has close to 200 families that would like baby chickens next spring. Even with incubating - she needs aproximately 3000 chickens to give away at community day. Each family would get 15 chicks. 5 for setting and 10 for meat. This year we are concentrating on brown eggs layers, because they are great setters and can make more chicks. We estimate that the incubators can do approximately 200 chickens a month. We need help to really get the community started.

Seed's, chickens and other donations can be sent to:

Focus America Project
c/o Manna from Heaven
PO Box 43
Myra, KY 41549