“For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat…”Matthew 25:34

Dear friends and neighbors:

In 1996, the late Anna Lou Lenz and other congregants of St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church sought to increase their role and mission in Downtown Wheeling. Seeing a growing need, they envisioned a food pantry where families could come and receive a monthly allotment of groceries. At first, we served only a few dozen families per month, but both need and interest have risen such that, since 2008, the St. James Food Pantry has distributed over 8,000 bags of groceries and frozen meats to families in Ohio County, Marshall County, and Belmont County. Maintaining sufficient funds to provide these items to more than 1,500 families per year has never been an easy task; however, thanks to you and other good people of the Upper Ohio Valley, that task has become much easier this year. This was our first truly public outreach campaign, and coming up with ways to raise $10,000 seemed both daunting and difficult. Nonetheless, we placed a lot of faith in the generosity of our Valley neighbors. Thanks to your overwhelming generosity, our first public fundraising campaign raised $16, 275.

$2,500 in a surprise gift from the ELCA Domestic Hunger Relief Program $2,000 from a local philanthropic organization $4,800 from 17 civic, labor, social, and religious organizations (Lutheran & non-Lutheran), 5 local

businesses, and numerous individual donors $700 from online donors across 11 states $950 from St. James congregants in our “Jacob’s Ladder” campaign $325 from our NCAA March Madness contest $5,000 in matching funds from the Thrivent Foundation

The more than $16,000 in donations will go a long way to help us at the St. James Food Pantry expand our ability to provide to more and more needy families in the area. We will not in any way diminish our energies to meet the demand, so we invite you to our annual indoor rummage and bake sale on Saturday, May 10 as well as to our Penny Auction fundraiser on September 6. Your donation was 100% tax-deductible, and you may use the EIN number listed above for your tax filing purposes. If you would like more information on the St. James Food Pantry, please visit our website (http://www.stjameswheeling.com/foodpantry) or “like” us on Facebook. Again, we express our sincere gratitude to everyone who contributed to, prayed for, and promoted our fundraising efforts.

St. James Food Pantry Maureen Morris-Wagner, Pantry Director1409 Chapline Street Rev. Deborah L. Gable, PastorWheeling, WV 26003 Mark Houser, Council President(304) 232-6511 Michael P. Hamilton, Campaign Coordinator