One of the exciting things about Five Loaf House is that it is intended to bring together people and resources from all over our community in the name of serving others to the glory of God. However, we realize that Five Loaf House represents some unique collaborations, and it's easy to get confused about how all these organizations relate. Here's a chart we've put together to help clarify things:

The Five Loaf House building is owned and operated by Pocono Lake Wesleyan Church. Monroe County Habitat for Humanity is generously acting as our contractor by organizing volunteers and making plans for our ongoing renovations. The Top of the Mountain Ecumenical Food Pantry stores and distributes food from Five Loaf House, but is a separate organization. The Food Pantry is administrated by the Top of the Mountain Ecumenical Council, which is a council of six local churches (Blakeslee United Methodist, Faith Lutheran, Pocono Lake United Methodist, Pocono Lake Wesleyan, St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Church, and Salem United Church of Christ).

Please keep this information in mind when making a donation. If you intend to support the work of the food pantry, please make your check out to "TOMEC Food Pantry." If you intend to support the construction and operation of Five Loaf House, please make your check out to "Pocono Lake Wesleyan Church" and designate that it is for Five Loaf House on the memo line. Five Loaf House cannot use food pantry funds, and vice versa.

Pocono Lake Wesleyan Church is proud to partner with each of these churches and organizations in our mutual call to love our neighbors, and we're grateful for the many ways they've supported the work at Five Loaf House.

So what comes next for Five Loaf House? As we mentioned in our last post, we have our permits for the work on the ground floor, the food pantry is settled in, and our volunteers are hard at work cleaning the kitchen. But Five Loaf House is a big building, and there's still much to be done!

Phase 2 of our work will involve renovations on the second floor with the hope of providing transitional housing for families in need. Those plans are being developed, but there's more urgent work to be done first.

Though we're using the building, our first phase of work isn't really complete until we've sealed up the outside of the building to prevent any water leaks. This means that we need to finish the vinyl siding on the second floor of the building, but in order to do that, we first need to replace the second floor windows.

We're going to need 28 windows to wrap up phase 1. Our estimate places the average cost of each window and its required framing materials at $372 each, for a total of $10,416. In addition, we're estimating about $2330 for the materials needed to finish the siding. That gives us a total of $12,746 required to finish phase 1 and have the building ready for winter.

That sounds like a lot of money, but here's the good news: once we've raised these funds, most of our big-dollar costs will be behind us. As we outlined in our last news post, by the end of phase 1 Five Loaf House will have a new roof, new siding, new windows, a new boiler, new plumbing, new electrical work, and a new water heater. We obviously still have lots of work to do on the second floor, but a lot of the big stuff is already done!

We need your help to finish this phase of work. Would you prayerfully consider whether you can help sponsor part or all of a window? The more work is done, the more we can serve this community! As you've heard us say many times, the goal of Five Loaf House is to be a place for each of us to be faithful with whatever resources we have, so that we can watch as God multiplies them for good.

We haven't posted many updates recently because we've been busy! Phase 1 of our renovation is nearing an end due to the selfless generosity of many, many people. Bill Snell, our project coordinator, said that more than 200 regular volunteers have invested 6000 hours (a conservative estimate) into Five Loaf House, and the results speak for themselves. Here are some photos showing the transformation, or you can check out our history page for a longer video slideshow of the work over the last year.

Mark Edwards, one of our extremely dedicated volunteers, provided us with a list of what all has been done:

• The first floor, excepting the kitchen and dishwasher room, was gutted.
• Additional footings, posts, and beams were installed beneath the entire building, and floors leveled.
• Extensive structural support work was completed in the main dining room areas.
• The main stairwell to the second floor was replaced and enlarged to meet current code requirements.
• A new handicapped ramp with handrails was added to the side of the building.
• Front entrances were rebuilt, with railings added.
• The bathrooms were moved and enlarged to meet ADA requirements.
• New doors have been installed with all door latches replaced with ADA compliant hardware.
• The first floor has been fully insulated.
• All new electric service has been installed.
• The plumbing system has been replaced.
• A new propane fueled steam boiler has been installed.
• A heat pump was installed to provide heat and air conditioning in the service/distribution room.
• An on-demand tankless hot water heater was installed.
• The enclosed front porch roof structure was replaced.
• The entire roof of the building was stripped and new roofing installed.
•  New ceilings and walls were installed, with fire rated drywall, then taped, spackled, and painted.
• Original wall siding on enclosed front porch was refurbished and painted.
• New doors have been installed with all door latches replaced with ADA compliant hardware.
• A new window was installed in the main dining room.
• New tiled floors were installed in the Service/Distribution Room and rear storage areas.
• The original wood floors in the Meeting Room and Dining Room were cleaned and refurbished.
• A handicap ramp was installed from the bathroom area into the Service/Distribution room.
• A gas fireplace was incorporated into the original fireplace mantle in the Meeting Room. The mantle was reinstalled, with stonework and hearth added.
• The original bar countertop was incorporated into a new service counter.
• A new loading dock was built at the rear of the building.
• Exterior housing around the walk-in refrigeration unit is currently in progress.
• Re-siding of the first floor is currently in progress
• The front sign post island was removed to gain two parking spaces.
• Front entry steps were turned, and a raised bed removed, to gain additional parking space.

All work completed to date brings the building into compliance with current commercial building code requirements, and requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

On June 14th, 2014, we held our official open house in recognition of our volunteers. Because of their hard work, we have received our permits for the work we've done on the main floor, and Five Loaf House can begin to serve our community!

The Top of the Mountain Ecumenical Food Pantry now calls Five Loaf House home, and they held their first distribution at Five Loaf House on June 9-10, 2014, serving over 500 people in our community.

We have a lot to celebrate, a lot to look forward to, and a lot to be grateful for! Work is still continuing, though, and we still need volunteers and donations. We'll post more information on our next steps soon, but for now, our volunteers are working hard to clean the kitchen and get its equipment in working order, as well as wrapping up what remains of Phase 1. Stay tuned for more!