CONTENTS 1/9/2021
Important Upcoming Meeting Monday
Utah Solution
SwiftHaven Report
From A Volunteer
Soup Brigade
Teamwork
Cooking Notes
Today’s Ingredients
Tools
Ingredients From Camp
Preparation
Delivery
Sign Here
Donations
About KN95 Masks
Otis The Dog
Lost Rake
Abandoned Bike
The Bellingham Folk Festival
Radio Free Fl!p: Close Your Eyes
IMPORTANT UPCOMING MEETING
Monday, 1/11/21, at 3:00 p.m.
City & County elected officials are meeting together to make plans to respond to local homelessness. The public does not get to speak at this meeting, but if lots of people show up to witness, that could contribute to the best possible outcome for our most vulnerable citizens.
If you wish to have an impact on their decisions at this meeting, please write as soon as possible.
City Hall’s street address is 210 Lottie Street, 98225.
mayorsoffice@cob.org
ccmail@cob.org
The Whatcom County Courthouse address is 311 Grand Avenue, 98225
ssidhu@co.whatcom.wa.us
council@co.whatcom.wa.us
UTAH SOLUTION
Utah reduced chronic homelessness by 91%. Here’s how.
https://www.npr.org/2015/12/10/459100751/utah-reduced-chronic-homelessness-by-91-percent-heres-how
SWIFTHAVEN REPORT
All the tiny homes have now arrived!!! They are working on getting settled. They have set up a contact-free donation table. They have their own facebook page if you look for it. Of course, they may be too busy to write much. Be a little careful about bringing them too much stuff. Those tiny houses are really tiny! No storage. Maybe check before you deliver?
FROM A CITY HALL VOLUNTEER
When people drop off canned goods, boxes of dry mac’n’cheese, and the like at city hall, volunteers then have to find a vehicle to take it all to the food bank since they can’t cook there. I know it comes from generous, caring hearts, however it winds up making extra work.
Cup-o-Noodles actually works. There is hot water available. And snack bars. Protein bars. Jerky and other meat snacks are treasured. Dried fruit.
For now, canned goods can be dropped off at Unity Village & SwiftHaven.
SOUP BRIGADE
Teamwork: Don’t do it alone! More and more cooks are teaming up with friends to prepare meals. Not necessarily in the same kitchen. It can even be 3 friends in their own homes, each making enough of whatever they’d like, for about 20 people each. It’s a lot less work when it’s shared. You can even talk on the phone or zoom to keep each other company.
Shopping Again? A neighbor made a huge ingredient run yesterday, and we could already use another one tomorrow! If you’d have time to go to SmartFood, please contact me for a shopping list. I have donated funds I can spend to get what we need. But I am staying home like the elder I have become.
Cooking Notes: My brain tends to freeze around arithmetic, but I double check with Zeke as I go. Think of this: a five pound bag of shredded cheese would be an ounce and a half in each of 50 servings. Fifty 16 oz servings is six and a half gallons of food. Think of a five gallon bucket. Not quite one and a half of those buckets. Lentils double or triple in volume from dry to cooked, so one cup dry makes about three cups cooked.
I’ve been sort of avoiding buying potatoes and carrots because they don’t last. But I ordered some yesterday. Please come get them to cook with. Those four pound bags of pasta will only feed 50 if you add a lot of other ingredients (cheese, hamburger, gravy, onions…)
Soup Brigade ingredients went flying out all day long. Consider casseroles and other thicker meals as well as soup. It turns out that casserole containers only cost 10 cents each, and paper soup cups with lids cost 40 cents each!
Today’s Ingredients: At this point we have 10# carrots, 10# red potatoes, 15# rice, 10# lentils, three 4# bags of pasta w/ holes (Ziti, penne), one 5# sack of shredded cheddar. We’ll get more cheese as soon as we can. Big tub of curry paste. About 20# of onions. Twelve dozen eggs. Three jars of chicken soup base. One #10 (3-quart) can of tomato sauce!
Tools: We have soup pots, baking pans & trays (cookies anyone? Brownies?). Also paper soup cups and lids, two kinds of paper dinner boxes, and 2000 more grease resistant bakery bags (a little larger than the last box. Plus 200 or so little brown paper sandwich bags. We were also gifted with 100 molded-paper clamshell 3-compartment dinner boxes if you want to surprise the campers with a full meal.
Ingredients From Camp: If you visit the camp before cooking, they often have donated fresh veggies and canned goods that they can’t cook there. They’re happy to put together boxes of food for you to take home and cook for them.
Preparation: Write the date on the top of each individual serving container. Write all the ingredients on a top flap of the nested cardboard boxes you deliver in. Two or three nested boxes will keep the food pretty hot while you take it there. Nestle the individual serving containers close together and cover the top with more cardboard or paper sacks.
Delivery: If you’ve never done this before, call me and I’ll talk you through it. 360-671-4511. Basically, you flash your headlights at the food tent till a volunteer in a mask comes to get your donation. Back your vehicle in across the street to leave pedestrians plenty of space.
Sign up here: This lets us space out our meals to avoid “feast or famine” – especially famine!
https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/nnmwke
DONATIONS
Folks have been bringing me cooking pots and pans, plus tarps, sleeping pads, batteries, tampons, socks, gloves, warm hats, jerky and other meat snacks, tent stakes,garbage bags, big heavy contractor bags (the extra large size can double as a bivy bag to sleep in), hand salve, and so many more thoughtful gifts! I’ve now got outreach volunteers coming by three times a week to pick up and distribute what you’ve brought. Outreach volunteers work to hand donations to the folks most in need, to avoid waste or hoarding. City Hall encampment still needs firewood, drinking water, and big sheets of cardboard, which should all be taken directly there. I just don’t have room. We’re working on other locations for donations of coats and other camping clothing. Hang onto them just a bit longer while we figure it out. Thank you SO much!!!
ABOUT KN95 MASKS
[From a neighbor with a new grandchild.]
KN95 is a Chinese standard for respirator masks. Similar to the N95 standard, masks must filter 95% or more of particles to meet the KN95 standard.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has provided guidance on use of alternatives such as KN95 masks when N95 masks are in short-supply. The CDC also has published testing results for over 120 KN95 masks. These results indicate which masks met or failed the 95% filtration standard when tested.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for respirators manufactured in China. This authorization includes a list of KN95 masks that the FDA has authorized for use in healthcare settings by healthcare personnel. These masks help prevent exposure to the coronavirus when used in accordance with CDC recommendations. The FDA removed masks that failed to meet the 95% filtration standard in CDC testing from the FDA EUA list.
For additional information, see:
- FDA guidance for KN95 masks.
- CDC respirator testing results(updated regularly).
- CDC’s Factors to Consider When Planning to Purchase Respirators from Another Country.
- COVID-19 Supplies storefront.
OTIS THE DOG
Found his owners! They said they forgot to bring him in last night-poor guy, thank you! ~ Sabina
LOST RAKE
Our handyman lost a rake in our alley (2500 block, between Cherry & West) yesterday morning. He says it’s just an ordinary garden rake, but it belonged to his mother and was dear to him. Did anyone find it? ~ Fl!p
ABANDONED BIKE
We found an abandoned bike in our yard Friday morning. Please get in touch with a description if you are missing a bike. ~ Dan Pollard (dpollard@gmail.com) Jaeger Street
BELLINGHAM FOLK FESTIVAL
One of the most delightful local events I know, and virtual this year. Did you go look at the poster yet? Go look! Maybe the best ever! Blow it up big so you can read it. It is SO funny!!!
RADIO FREE FL!P: CLOSE YOUR EYES
Filmed at their home on Martha’s Vineyard in 1977, Carly Simon and James Taylor perform his song. I love the kindness. I might go to bed early tonight…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjksn8mEt8M
Love/Fl!p 360-671-4511 2518 Cherry Street flip@columbianeighborhood.org
If you’re willing to share your phone and address with me, personally, I would love that, and would not share it further without your express permission.
If you want to ask me to post something, just email me. If it’s urgent, phone. If it’s a real emergency, call 911.