Murray Baptist, 2016 Golden Celery champions! According to Crossroads’ Golden Celery lore, several one-gallon cans of dehydrated celery were donated years ago. Due to the nature of our services the practicality of such a donation was lost on many of us. A good chuckle was had and then the creative juices started flowing. In 2008, our then-Community Outreach Coordinator had the idea of a friendly food drive competition between local churches. After modifying the celery cans into a “trophy”--the Golden Celery Challenge was born.
The rules are fairly simple and were created so that participating congregations have a chance to win.
The Challenge:
This year, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of homeless individuals seeking assistance through our Pantry. We are having an increasingly difficult time ensuring that we have enough individually-packaged food to fill the orders needed for those folks, which are items that aren’t delivered through our Utah Food Bank allocation. As such, we are making a special request in this year’s Golden Celery – please help us meet this need by focusing your Golden Celery collection on the list of items attached. We know they don’t yield the highest weight, but they go a long way to meet the needs of the community we serve.
Your congregation’s participation makes a huge difference for hungry Utahans. Please join us!
Why Participate?
To give some perspective on why Golden Celery is in July - in December 2016, the most popular time of the year for donations, Crossroads received 6,397 pounds of food. In June, we received 1,550.3 pounds of food. This disparity does not correlate to the number of people using our services. Rather, and not surprisingly, the number of people we serve increases in the summer. Now, with a dip in donations for the summer, this would be a real strain on our resources. However, thanks to you and our other faith communities, July last year saw a total donation of 12,963.1 pounds! That’s over 11,000 that may not have been possible without the overwhelming generosity of our faith communities through the Golden Celery challenge!
The rules are fairly simple and were created so that participating congregations have a chance to win.
The Challenge:
- Sign up with Crossroads Urban Center. Contact the Community Outreach Coordinator, Jess Roadman 801-364-7765 x110 before July.
- Take attendance of members every Sunday during the month of July. We have large and small congregations that participate. To ensure a fair shot at the win, donations are tallied per capita. Submit attendance weekly or at the end of the competition to [email protected]
- Collect food donations for the month of July. Starting on the 1st and ending on the 31st. Last day for donation drop off is the 31st. Please note we will be closed July 4, 2017 and Pioneer day July 24, 2016.
- Drop off the donations to Crossroads. 347 South 400 East SLC. Drop off donation times are M-F 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m, all month long. Make sure you tell us you are donating for the Golden Celery Challenge. This is very important!!
- There is not a limit on bulk items. However, any package or bags over two pounds must be broken down into quart size zip lock bags clearly labeled sugar, dried milk, etc. We just don’t have the manpower to do this and your help will be greatly appreciated. We will not be accepting water as a bulk item. Due to space, we can only accept liquid milk in quantities of 1 quart or less. We do need juice and juice boxes.
- Winner announced the first week in August.
This year, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of homeless individuals seeking assistance through our Pantry. We are having an increasingly difficult time ensuring that we have enough individually-packaged food to fill the orders needed for those folks, which are items that aren’t delivered through our Utah Food Bank allocation. As such, we are making a special request in this year’s Golden Celery – please help us meet this need by focusing your Golden Celery collection on the list of items attached. We know they don’t yield the highest weight, but they go a long way to meet the needs of the community we serve.
Your congregation’s participation makes a huge difference for hungry Utahans. Please join us!
Why Participate?
To give some perspective on why Golden Celery is in July - in December 2016, the most popular time of the year for donations, Crossroads received 6,397 pounds of food. In June, we received 1,550.3 pounds of food. This disparity does not correlate to the number of people using our services. Rather, and not surprisingly, the number of people we serve increases in the summer. Now, with a dip in donations for the summer, this would be a real strain on our resources. However, thanks to you and our other faith communities, July last year saw a total donation of 12,963.1 pounds! That’s over 11,000 that may not have been possible without the overwhelming generosity of our faith communities through the Golden Celery challenge!
