A Center for Community Activity

Bob Kasieta, Board President

I hope you are enjoying the hot summer weather. Remember on the sultriest days how you longed for the warmth of the summer sun when January winds blew. This month I’d like to highlight how BPNN is becoming a focal point for community activity.

The rest of this newsletter reports on BPNN interacting with government and private organizations to raise funds, solve problems, and work cooperatively in many ways. This is one secret to BPNN’s great success. We have always been able to build on the work of other organizations with shared missions. Have you noticed how many people you meet who might not be directly involved in BPNN still know about us? That’s a sign that BPNN is integrating with many community organizations, leveraging the opportunity to have greater reach. So, if someone asks you how BPNN is able to do all it does, please remember to mention the great good will of so many organizations that join with us to do the work we cherish.

The other great secret to BPNN’s success? You, of course. In a thousand ways your volunteer service is building a force for good in this community that we’ve not seen before. “Thank you” is too small an expression to acknowledge what you do. Yet, thanks is very much in order. Our volunteers, including those in leadership who also volunteer, make BPNN nothing short of amazing. We’re on track to serve more than 85,000 guests in the food pantry this year. With inflation, the end of Covid assistance, and reductions in federal SNAP benefits, we will be challenged to do even more in the future. But cooperating with other organizations that share our goals, and fueled by the passion of more than 1,100 volunteers, we will meet the challenge. So, thank you for all you have done and all you will yet do to help our neighbors.

Bob