Benevolence Center gives out clothes, 50,000 pounds of food to those in need
It would be easy to get lost in the Benevolence Center statistics.
The center gives out about 40,000 to 60,000 pounds of food every month, thousands of items of clothing and other assistance.
But it is the individuals who desperately need the aid and the loving people who help that are the real stories.
Take Donald for example, who is disabled from a back injury at work. It is painful for him to reach the door of the newly renovated Christian Care building on 14th Street. He was on Social Security disability but he didn’t get much. Now at 62, he will be receiving regular Social Security, but that won’t be enough to cover his expenses either.
“People talk about things going up 50%," he said. "It’s more like 100%. People talk about being afraid that we’re going into a recession, but it feels like we’ve never left.”
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Inflation has pushed the cost of living through the roof, and not just for Donald, who didn't want his last name used for this article.
He has three grown daughters, but one is living back home, has children and is pregnant.
Glenn Shires, the director of the center, sees it all, including the homeless.
People are being forced out of their mobile homes to live in a motel, “but that doesn’t last long,” he said. They end up in one of the tent camps scattered about the area.
About half of the clients are elderly people on fixed incomes. Many others are the working poor, some of whom work two jobs and it’s still not enough to fill all the gaps.
The center was part of the dream envisioned by First Baptist Rev. Charles Roesel, who was inspired by Matthew 25:35 – 40.
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
The ministry village, on 6 acres near the church, has been operating as a nonprofit 501c3 charity for 38 years and includes a pregnancy and family care center, a medical center, an emergency child shelter, a women’s recovery center and one for men, a job assistance program, the Samaritan Inn, which is a shelter for homeless families, counseling services and more.
It has impressed government leaders, like Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell, state Sen. Dennis Baxley, Mayor Jimmy Burry, and others, who praised the center on May 23 at a ribbon-cutting for the new building.
The center had worked out of the cramped 100-year-old former train ticket office on Main Street, but it didn’t stop it from giving out 4 million items of clothing and 26 million pounds of food over the years.
The center gets food from Second Harvest and several area stores and from donations. It is forced to buy some food, especially canned food.
Shires praised his team, which consists of a small army of volunteers, two full-time and two part-time workers, and the vision of the former director, Lee Evans, who still works at the center.
Christian Care Director Bill Jones said on the day of the ribbon-cutting that the thing that makes him happy is that people will be coming to the new center the next day as soon as the doors open.
The Rev. Cliff Lea of First Baptist remembers the first time he volunteered at a food bank.
“I talked to a lady who said some men allowed her to sleep on their porch. I had five boys, and I thought, I have never had to ask anybody if we could sleep on their porch at night.”
It has restored hope for Donald and reminded him of what the standard should be.
“Society should be helping each citizen. Instead, many run over you and don’t even stop.”
This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Benevolence Center gives out 50,000 pounds of food to those in need
