cheers to a new year!

Food Pantry Director, Bonnie Dayton (center), and Executive Director, T. J. Smith (right), accept a check from the Highlands Cashiers Hospital CEO Tom Neal (left).

Happy New Year! We are off and running at the IFC, looking forward to year of good works for our communities on the Plateau. The start to this year feels especially good as we had a very successful Annual Appeal campaign and were surprised at the end of 2023 with a sizeable contribution from one of our community partners.

First, we want to thank each and everyone of our donors who responded to our Annual Appeal letter with financial contributions totaling nearly $50,000! That generosity along with the many who are sustaining contributors throughout the year has put us in a good position as we enter 2024. As you already know, this time of year is the hardest for many of those we serve. With seasonal employment still months away and poor weather limiting the work that is available, folks look to us and others for help more during these cold and dreary winter months. Your gifts are so important to ensuring we can support our communities - THANK YOU!

We also need to extend a big thank you to HCA Healthcare and our Highlands Cashiers Hospital who made a sizeable year-end contribution of $17,500 as part of HCA's system-wide canned-food drive. The food drive was linked to a contest that challenged each hospital in the HCA system to create a sculpture using the cans. Regional winners would receive $10,000 to disperse to their communities as they saw fit. The system-wide winner would also receive an additional $25,000 to that same end. Our friends at HCH won the whole thing! They chose to split their total winnings of $35,000 between our pantry mission and the folks at Fishes and Loaves in Cashiers. It was a completely unexpected gift and we are so grateful for it.