COMMUNITY SERVICES

Food Distribution gives food boxes to over 800 families each year who have no where else to turn for help. Donated food items, enough to feed the family for a week, are given to eligible families. Emergencies include fire, loss of employment, excessive medical bills, injuries, high utility bills, domestic abuse, homelessness and many others. Referrals are made to help the family secure other assistance when needed.

Donated used Furniture and Household Items (dishes, cookware, linens, etc.) are given to 250 or more families each year amid some type emergency. Some have experienced a fire. Others are fleeing an abuse situation. Still others have come to the area in search of work in the fields, with only those personal items they could haul in a beat up, old car. Often their requests include food and other assistance in addition to furniture and household items.

An increasing number of children are given School Supplies each year, especially at the beginning of the school year. With the cost of required beginning school items reaching as high as $200 in some cases many low-income families cannot begin to fill the list without assistance. And as school budgets decrease the list of items which parents are expected to purchase increases. This year we saw such things as "paper towels" on school lists.

The Thrift Store makes good, used clothing available to families at affordable "dime-to-dollar" prices. Many parents buy all their children’s school clothes at the Thrift Store. And without the store many could not afford to clothe their children for school. Others are given clothing amid emergencies – children without shoes, battered women without a coat, released inmates without street clothing, families who have lost everything in a fire – these are all given clothing without charge. School Counselors often refer families to our Thrift Store for help.