Serving Others

The increase that we saw in 2008 has continued. For the first quarter of 2009 we saw an increase of over 29.7 % in our food pantry as compared to 2008. We served families over 5,400 times in those three months reaching an estimated 6,816 individuals.

In our hot meals program, we serve five (5) meals per week and an average 245 individuals per meal. This is an increase of about 19 % over the first quarter, 2008. We picked up a greater number of individuals from the Lucille Giles Center on Statesville Avenue and from the Salvation Army Shelter on Spratt Street.

We are seeing many, many new people coming to utilize our food and clothing programs. An unofficial tally based on inspection says we are serving a greater number of Hispanics and White families and individuals. We estimate that we serve Hispanics about 10 % of the time, up from about 2 %, and Whites about 4 % of the time, up from about 1 %. As you may know, African-Americans make up the rest of the people that we serve. We are finding that people, in general, are more grateful and are willing to wait to be served longer. We are getting many more intentional “thank you’s.”