By Imbert Matthee
The Times 

From Foodbank To Help Hub

 


WAITSBURG - Three months after the old food bank operation moved from a cramped basement into a street-level store front, community members in need are finding a lot more than nutrition at the new Waitsburg Resource Center.

"We're bigger than the food bank," said Rev. Mike Ferrians of the Waitsburg Christian Church who serves as the center's treasurer. "It's everything we envisioned it to be."

The center, with its cleaner, more accessible and more central location in the America West Bank building on Preston Ave., is more hospitable for clients and more pleasant for volunteers, he said.

It has brought members from several congregations together behind the common Christian mission of providing tangible resources to those in need, Ferrians said. "There's more a sense of community for the project."

The backbone of the center is its board and the Waitsburg Ministerial Association, which has added the Catholic Church to the old food bank sponsors, the Christian and Presbyterian churches.

That means the center has a larger pool of volunteers to draw from. Already open Saturday mornings, it recently added Thursdays 2-4 pm to its hours, allowing more families to take advantage of its services.

Those services now include referrals to and/or information about substance abuse recovery, support services for women and children, pastoral support, health and nutrition, child development, public assistance and health insurance.

They include direct emergency assistance with housing, utility bill payments, recipe books, support for gas and heating fuel, and other urgent needs, not to mention an expanded variety and volume of food items.

In March, the Waitsburg Resource Center became the fifth food pantry in the area to receive food commodities under the Federal Food Assistance Program channeled through the Blue Mountain Action Council.

Although the monthly deliveries vary based on availability, Ferrians said the center's clients have benefitted from such items as frozen meats, fresh vegetables, eggs, potatoes and canned foods.

The center in turn has benefitted from the generosity of America West Bank, which provides its space free of charge to churches community and covers the space's utilities. But even though that means the center has no bills, it still raises money for clients' emergency needs.

Ferrians said for that reason, the center welcomes donations, which supporters can make directly in its name at America West Bank.

 

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