Good morning,

Our first meeting for planning the 2026 International Food Festival (IFF) will be next May 19th at 6PM. All Parish groups are asked to send a representative. See Agenda Items below.

I need to reschedule the next IFF meeting to May 19th at 6PM. I apologize for any inconvenience to your schedules.  

I want to update you on what has been happening behind the scenes.

1. The raffle license has been approved. Thanks Alicia.

2. The raffle tickets are being printed. Thanks Careen for handling this.

3. JoAnne Baker has volunteered to sell raffle tickets at two churches, closer to the date and after Father Nelson gets approval. Thanks JoAnne

4. Meredith and husband have agreed to work the raffle the night of the event. Just like last year, Thanks Meredith.

5. Cathy Willems has agreed to work with Tyson to procure chicken for the food. Thanks Cathy.

6. Kevin Wren has agreed to work the entrance table. He will need some assistance. Thanks Kevin.

7. Flo Fitch wants to help with publicity. Thanks Flo

Here are some things we would like to have in place before next meeting or as soon as possible:

A. Who can commit to getting the banner date fixed and placing the banners around town when we get closer to Oct. 3rd?

B. Father Nelson asked that the CYM and the Confirmation classes be involved. Luis and Allee will you be able to get these groups involved?  I don’t have Jose Garcia address but get with him and he can get the confirmation students involved.

C. We will need commitments to baby sit the small kids whose parents are working the event.

D. We will need help stuffing the envelopes with the raffle tickets.

E. Once we start selling raffle tickets we need commitments from someone at each weekend Mass to collect money and stubs.

F. I am working on getting something written explaining what the International Food Festival is for all the new parishioner that do not know with IFF means. We could run a paragraph in the bulletin explaining it. Does anyone have something in the files that does a good job explaining the event?

G. Kevin can you update last year’s flyer information so it is ready to go when we start advertising it? 

H. I will be at a table at Parish Picnic to explain how people can get involved with the IFF (and other parish events)

J. We need to talk about what are the “other prizes” we will give away. Thoughts about IPAD, IPhone, other ideas? Last year the various groups donated toward some of the prizes. If you are a member of a parish group please discuss at your next meeting. 

K. Father Nelson asked about getting donations of ham and eggs from companies that market ham and eggs. Do any of you know any information about this?

Thank you so much for reading this far. Last year in the evaluation we were weak in publicity. So let’s all try and promote this fundraiser! 

Let’s communicate via this email group and as you gather information and commitments to people wanting to get involved, pass this information on to me and I will share with the group. 

Thank you everyone!!