'Small church with big potential': Union Center congregation driven to help others

An Endicott area church is helping to feed the hungry by opening an indoor food pantry for those in need.

“We are a small church with big potential,” said the Rev. Jeahyun Kook, pastor of the Union Center United Methodist Church, which has about 45 members.

Church members recently opened a food pantry at the church on Maple Drive. While the church has an Endicott mailing address, the church building is located in the Union Center part of the Town of Union and outside the village.

Kook encouraged church members to start a food pantry after he became the church’s pastor in July 2021. Church members partnered with the Food Bank of the Southern Tier and opened an outdoor mobile walk-up food pantry last spring.

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About 100 families per month participate in the outdoor food pantry, which is held on the first Thursday of each month. The outdoor food pantry will continue throughout the winter months along with an indoor pantry that opened at the church last month, said Sheila Snyder, a church member and one of the organizers of the food pantry.

People in need can also pick up personal hygiene items such as diapers at the pantry, Snyder said.

Debbie Haines, the food pantry’s other co-organizer, said she and other volunteers at the food pantry enjoy helping people in need.

“We’re excited to be doing this work and happy and eager to be meeting with the community in this way and helping out,” she said. “It really gives us a sense of worth that we can all come together and do this for the community.”

Helping others through projects such as the food pantry is a big part of the church’s focus, Snyder said.

“As Christians we’re taught to love each other and to serve each other,” Snyder said. “We want to continue our mission of helping and serving in the community.”

Her pastor agreed.

“We are followers of Jesus Christ,” Kook said. “The food pantry is going to be a good way to follow Jesus Christ.”

The food pantry isn’t the only community service project the church is involved in. Church members have held spring and fall festivals for the community, held fundraisers and collected items for Samaritan’s Purse, which sends shoeboxes filled with gifts to children all over the world; and visited older residents in their homes and at United Health Services Senior Living at Ideal.

They prepare and deliver food baskets to people in need during the holidays, hold a Trunk and Treat event for children at Halloween and participate in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.

In the past, church members have teamed up with members of the Boulevard United Methodist Church in Binghamton to go on mission trips to rehabilitate houses in poor neighborhoods in West Virginia, Snyder said.

“We have a longstanding tradition of doing service projects and different ways of helping in the community,” Snyder said of her church. “We want to continue our mission of outreach to the community.”

More about the Union Center United Methodist Church

Rev. Jeahyun Kook serves as pastor of the church located at 128 Maple Dr. Sunday services are held at 10:30 a.m.

How to Help: Monetary donations can be sent to the church at 128 Maple Dr., Endicott, NY, 13760. Write "Food pantry" in the memo section of the check.

If you go: The food pantry is open from 3:30 to 7 p.m. every Thursday and 10 a.m. until noon every third Saturday at the church.

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Union Center United Methodist Church food pantry, fundraisers