Birthday party Tuesday for the Love Bus

Feb. 10—NORWALK — In honor of five years of providing for both body and soul for people in need, the Love Bus invites the community to a birthday party from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14, at the Eagles Aerie, 151 Cline St. in Norwalk.

Marlane Cox, founder of the program, said Big Blue Betty will be open for tours and guests can enjoy cupcakes and cookies to celebrate the non-profit's fifth birthday. She is asking guests to bring presents of birthday cake mixes, decorations and party supplies, if possible, for the Love Bus's Birthday Blessings program.

In that program, the non-profit supplies cake and frosting mix, cake decorations and party supplies along with small gifts to the families of local children in need. "We keep it simple and make Christ a part of it all," Cox said.

The Love Bus also has a Backpack Blessing program — monthly meals and food distribution and "Pizza in the Park" for teenagers in the summer.

"Originally I planned to preach, testify and hand out Bibles," Cox said of her first efforts more than five years ago. "But I realized we need to meet people's physical needs first."

So she filled all the paperwork for a non-profit, enlisted the help of family and friends and loaded up her conversion van to find out what her community needed. That first Mother's Day, they gave out iced coffee and flowers to each mother who showed up when they announced their program. They passed out doughnuts and small gifts to dads on Father's Day. They went door-to-door with muffins and also gave out Easter eggs on Good Friday.

Soon Cox teamed up with OHgo, a Sandusky-based ministry that runs mobile pantries. OHgo would give Cox 50 to 60 bags of groceries each month and Cox and her band of volunteers started distributing the food and also providing a hot meal at 5:30 p.m. on the first Friday of each month at McGuan Park.

"It has turned into more than I originally planned," Cox said with a smile. "The basic concept is just sharing so now we depend on the community to supply what we can give to our neighbors."

The Love Bus now gathers supplies for monthly pantry staples, food and produce distribution instead of relying on any food pantry,

She has a "bread guy" who donates bread and Little Debbie items, an employee of Sirna & Sons produce who works overtime to cover the cost of produce and eggs from that company and other volunteers who step up regularly to prepare the meals and help with the monthly food distribution. The Love Bus routinely distributes food to 50 to 60 families each month and provides hot meals for up to 100 people, Cox said.

Area groups such as Norwalk Eagles, Foundation Church, The Gathering, New Life Church, Oasis, New Wineskin Ministries and Word of Grace have sponsored the monthly pantry. About a dozen other churches, ministries and businesses also helped the Love Bus in 2022.

"Sometimes a random donation comes from a person I've never met," Cox said. That just shows to her how caring the community is. "We are creating community through the love of Jesus Christ. We operate on such little money because we have so many people helping."

But Cox has never forgotten the inspiration for her work — her faith.

"Everything we have comes from love of the Lord," she said. "Scripture is always included and we say prayers over everybody." As important as the food they give out, Cox said, is the hope and encouragement they spread.

"Some of the people we're serving don't really go to church," she said, "so we don't want to be overbearing. But we always include Scripture and a blessing."

Cox believes that makes a difference. She started "Pizza in the Park" last summer to provide a safe space for teenagers. The Love Bus showed up at McGuan Park at 6 p.m. every Wednesday from June through August with pizza and ended up serving kids of all ages and even families.

"Once a group of kids came a little late and said, 'Hey, we missed the prayer,' so I told them they could pray right then on their own," she said. "I thought it was great they wanted a prayer."

In the Backpack Blessings program, Cox takes the names of students from Norwalk, Edison and Monroeville schools and provides donors with a student's name, the school list of supplies and suggestions for personalizing the gift. Victory Baptist Church hosts an event with activities for families to enjoy when they come to pick up their back packs. Cox said she asks the donors to keep the name of the student they help to continue to pray for that young person through the year.

One big change in Cox's non-profit is the addition of an actual bus. The Love Bus started in her conversion van, but she got her hands on an old school bus in the summer of 2020.

"It needed a lot of work," she said. She put her husband, Cody, to work as her mechanic and he got it in shape to actually become the Love Bus in 2021.

Just like the improvements to that bus, the Love Bus has improved her life and the lives of her fellow volunteers.

"It's kind of amazing," she said. "There's this beautiful community that has been created because they just want to sacrifice their time and their talents and just give. We think we're being served so much more than those we're serving."

And some of the people who were helped by the Love Bus in the early days are now volunteers.

"We don't judge anybody. We're open to everybody," Cox said. "We know the messiness of who we are and the Lord is smiling down on us and blessing us."