- Started in 1987 in a barn in Parker by 4 ladies, Nancy Gripman primary visionary.
- Became 501c3 organization in 1987
- Barn to Quonset hut, to Old Schoolhouse, Town Hall basement to current location in 2016.
- 100 % volunteer run since day one and still is today!!
- Over 100 active volunteers with an average of 9 years of service!
- Longest running volunteer has been a part of the organization since 1997! Thank you, Genese!
- We currently have 10 husband and wife volunteer couples.
- We are an organization that helps people get back on their feet by short term assistance.
- We are focused on breaking the cycle and helping them achieve independence.
- We spend an average of 1 to 1.5 hours with every client between interview and shopping.
- We share with other food banks such as Inner-City Parish, Elizabeth food bank, Harvest Bible church, Jewish Family Services, Help and Hope, Manna Cares and more.
- 30% of our clients are Seniors whose situation never improves! Many have over 10 years with us!
- We provide backpacks for 16 different schools every week for children who do not have weekend stability in food. Currently we deliver over 205 per week, and 22 counselor boxes. In 2014 we delivered 2300 for the year, in 2023-24 school year it will go over 8,500 backpacks! Thank you, Gary, Luis and Ted!
- In 2022 and 2023, we have provided over 90 individual college scholarships! Planning 45 more for 2024!
- We are part of a partnership with Douglas County Schools in getting kids back into school! In 2023 Teachers delivered over 150 gift bags provided by PTF along with a personal home visit, which has resulted in a 4-year running 74% success rate with kids coming back to school. Thank you, Carol!
- We held 7 food drives at 5 local grocery stores in Parker. The volunteers that help run this operation totals another 75 or more volunteers! For the year we collected 2600 boxes of food, and cash and gift cards of over $33,000!
- We are a community supported food bank! We receive no government assistance or grants! 100% supported by the generous support of individuals, businesses, groups such as Rotary, Subaru, Local churches such as Ave Maria, Parker Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Parker United Methodist Church, Providence Presbyterian Church, New Day Seventh Adventist Church, Parker Golf association.
- We work closely with other organizations such as Help and Hope, Ave Maria, Secor, The Rock, Manna Cares.
Additional statistics for 2023
- We saw 3600 individual visits, an 11% increase over 2022.
- This resulted in over 8,720 family members being served.
- We distributed over 193,000 items to our families.
- We provided 56 nights in hotels for various individuals without a permanent home.
- We added over 600 new families to our ranks resulting in a 24% increase over 2022.
- 26% of our families are single parent households.
- We aided 181 families in rental assistance preventing evictions and providing a roof over their heads.
- We aided over 271 families with utility assistance preventing disconnects to service.
- We handed out over 277 complete Turkey dinners with all the sides to our families. Thank you, Lisa, Bruce, and team, for your heroic efforts!
- We were able to find sponsors for over 131 families for Christmas resulting in over 360 bags of gifts! Thank you Sue and Kara and team for all your efforts!
- We accumulated over 26,400 volunteer hours for the year. At $20 per hour this is well over $500,000 in payroll dollars.
In closing The Parker Task Force family was faced with a totally unexpected and yet well-deserved retirement of its breathing, pulsating heart and leadership for the last 15 years in the departure of Steve Budnack. Very few individuals have given totally and unselfishly of themselves as Steve did. Steve is still working behind the scenes for the PTF family on our behalf. Thank you, Steve, for all you did (and still do) for PTF!
PTF is expanding its building to accommodate its growth and to better serve the community. The expansion has been approved by the Town of Parker. After obtaining our permits and getting the final pricing of the project, PTF hopes to break ground soon.