CHECK OUT: Church Community Service’s New Food Pantry

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Church, Church Community Service, Civic Engagement, Civic Service, Community Service, Elkhart County, Elkhart County Business Donations, Elkhart County Indiana, Food, Food bank, Friends, Good Deeds, Goshen Indiana, Helping, Helping Friends, Helping Hand, Labor of Love, Michiana Tea Party Coalition, Neighbors, Volunteering, We the People 912

Labor of Love, which included businesses from St. Joseph and Elkhart counties, as well as “We the People” 912 and  the Michiana Tea Party Coalition distributed 80 bins and were among the first contributors to the new pantry.

More and more Elkhart County families are struggling on a daily basis to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. It isn’t just the unemployed either. Parents are working multiple jobs and skipping meals just so they can make sure their children are fed.  They have tough decisions to make every day: whether to fill up the car or put food on the table; whether to pay the utilities or put food on the table; whether to pay the rent or put food on the table. All it takes is one illness, one dead car battery or one rent hike and they can no longer take care of their family without help.

For those without family or friends nearby, Church Community Services provides hope , in the form of food and education and finanacial assistance to families going through hard times in Elkhart County.  When families are living in poverty, they have to do without a lot of things – food should not be one of them.

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012 was a huge day for Church Community Services.

It was the grand opening of Church Community Services’ long awaited renovated food pantry and warehouse.  Church Community Services has been working towards making this transition for 4 years.  The new building will give them the resources, space, and opportunity to better serve needs in our growing community.  It will allow them to store and distribute more food. It  will be cleaner and more welcoming, and will give space to be more volunteer- and client- friendly. They will also be able to put more focus on education, such as providing handy recipes and nutritional facts.

The new pantry is 1,225 sq. ft. compared to the former 494 sq. ft.  The new warehouse is 2,910 sq. ft. compared to the current 1,680 sq. ft.  There is also a 864 sq. ft. welcome center complete with a children’s area, and a prayer room for anyone who feels a need to pray. Lots of love and labor was put into this project, and IT SHOWS!

This nutrician video, full of advice on meal planning, preparation and nutrition runs 24/7 in the waiting room.

Amazing things happen when we are given the privilege of being the channels of the Holy Spirit’s prayer. Church Community Service’s new pantry facility includes a chapel to assist client’s needs.

Here is part of the children’s play area where volunteers watch the children while their parents shop at the pantry.

The ‘Seed to Feed’ vegetables look so good! Fresh garden vegetables are ALWAYS so appreciated.

Mary Kneller, Food Director for Church Community Services, generously used up some of her very valuable time to show me the new facilities. It was a real pleasure.

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We ARE our brother’s keeper: Elkhart County works together to assist neighbors in need

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Benefit, Civic Engagement, Community, Community Service, Depression, Elkhart County, Elkhart County Indiana, Food Banks, Food Pantry, Gardens, Indiana, Need, Recession, United States, Vegetables

Helping hands come in all shapes and sizes.

Elkhart County’s community gardens bring people together of all ages and from every walk of life. You DON’T have to be an experienced gardener to be of assistance. One woman who picked beans last night told me that she had never before picked a bean in her life. But, she said she likes how working in the garden makes her feel. “This feeds people here in our community,” she explains. “We can get a little sweaty and dirty for someone else. Giving back is a good thing.”

Despite this summer’s earlier drought, I do not think it possible for the bean crop to have been MORE prolific. I have NEVER seen bean bushes so laden.

As the economic recession keeps demand at food banks running high, the “big need” and “big hearts” keep “Seed to Feed” volunteers motivated.

Hi, it’s me. I cheated and brought a garden cart to wheel around on.

Get involved! We believe God will continue to bring people and resources together to produce a harvest of vegetables as well as fruit in the lives of those giving and receiving.

Wow! Look at the results. According to Dave Hochstetler, Seed to Feed Coordinator, yesterday volunteers picked 210 pounds of beans and 94 pounds of cucumbers and tomatoes. All from the Goshen farm!

These tomatoes will be SO appreciated by Church Community Service’s food pantry clients!

‘Seed to Feed’s’ coordinator, Dave Hochstetler, says that the vegetables are coming in so plentifully that “Seed to Feed” needs 30 pickers each time: Mondays at 9 a.m., Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Tell your churches, tell your clubs, tell your families. Great group project. Call Dave for details: 574-349-4905 or dhhooch@aol.com .

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‘Seed to Feed’ has yielded 510 pounds of food so far this summer! More volunteers needed!

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Community, Community Service, Food, Food Pantries, Food security, Garden, Goshen, Green bean, Harvest, Home, Home-Grown, Potatoes, Sweet corn, Tomatoes, Tuesday, Vegetables, Volunteer, Volunteering

Posted on August 10, 2012 by churchcommunityservices

Yield from the Goshen farm.

Beautiful produce from our beautiful Seed to Feed acre in Goshen.  Our clients are so happy!

Fresh vegetables for Elkhart Counties food pantries.

Fresh air, exercise, good honest dirt, and service that helps sustains CCS’s food supply: From now till the end of harvest season, Seed to Feed will need at least 15 volunteers 2 days a week. We will pick the green beans and sweet corn at the Bullard Garden every Monday at 9:00am. It is located on C.R.17 and Middlebury St, directly across from Sorg Jewelers on the west side of C.R.17.

The Fresh Produce Garden in Goshen will be picked every Tuesday at 7:00pm. It is located at 14723 CR36. It is just east of CR33 about 1/8 of a mile on the north side of CR36. The gardens are really starting to produce nice yields each week and should until the end of the season. If you can help, please contact Church Community Services either by email (dhhooch@aol.com) or phone (574-349-4905).

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• Volunteers needed this week to help Seed to Feed’s garden (part of Church Community Services) (elkhartcountygrassrootshub.wordpress.com)
• PLANTING A MILE: Group Goes The Distance (whotv.com)
• County farmers and ‘Church Community Services’ join forces to feed the hungry (elkhartcountygrassrootshub.wordpress.com)
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The Red Barn/Humane Society of Elkhart County needs resale items

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Abandoned Animals, Adopt a Pet, Bristol, Cats, Community Service, Dogs, Elkhart County Indiana, Friday, Fundraising, Humane Society of Elkhart County, Indiana, Pets, Rabbits, Saturday, Small Animals, The Red Barn Resale Shop, United States, Volunteer

The Humane Society of Elkhart County’s ‘Red Barn Resale Shop’ is accepting gently used clothes, furniture, household items, books and gift items.

Donations can be dropped off at the Humane Society of Elkhart County, 54687 C.R. 19, Bristol, Indiana. ( One mile off of C.R. 17 off of S.R. 120.) For more informantion call: 574-848-4225.

~ Sale Days ~

Please join us on our sale days Friday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. including August 10 & 11; PET FEST DAY on August 18 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.; August 27 & 28; September 14 & 15; September 28 & 29; October 12 & 13; October 26 & 27; November 9 & 10.

They depend upon us. PLEASE don’t let them down.

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• Humane Society of Elkhart County provides ‘pet food assistance’ to struggling families (elkhartcountygrassrootshub.wordpress.com)

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Elkhart, Elkhart County, Event, Fun, Fundraiser, Good Times, Indiana, Prizes, Special, Sports, Vollyball, Volunteer

Church Community Services News

• Tuesday, August 21st: Armadillo Beach Volleyball Classic at Rivals Sports Den at 6 PM. Sign-up by August 16th.
  -Cost/Entry Fees: $100 per team                                                                              -Team guidelines: 4 person co-ed teams
  -CASH grand PRIZE!
  -Raffle Prizes : Give-Aways : 50/50
  -Bring non-perishable items to be donated to Church Community Services and be entered to win a Texas Roadhouse Dinner Certificate.

Click here for full details and sign-up!

This event is part of Texas Roadhouses Headlock on Hunger campaign in which all proceeds benefit the Church Community Services food pantry.

Below is the check that presented to CCS from the golf scramble fundraiser, restaurant sales, and the community celebration.

That’s $6,500 toward the work we do here at CCS!

Thank you Texas Roadhouse for your ongoing support of your community!

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COMMUNITY SERVICE–ONE PERSON can make a DIFFERENCE to SO MANY!

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Activism, Altruistic, Amish, Caring, Community, Community Service, Compassionate, Family, Foster care, Foster Children, Fostering Handicapped Children, Generous, Giving, Good Heart, Mennonite, Nappanee Indiana, United States, Unselfish, Volunteering

“I would like to get more involved in my community, but I do not have time.”

“I’m just too busy with life to volunteer.”

“Life is too hectic for me to make a commitment to volunteering.

How often do we hear those words? I used to say them. Then I met Freeda Helmuth.

Monday through Friday, 93-year-old Freeda (Schwietert) Helmuth babysat for her two-year-old, 4-year-old and her 6-year-old great-grandchildren. She also gardened, kept house and made quilts. The last time I talked to Freeda she had made grape jelly and grape juice that day from her homegrown grapes. She also gave me her recipe for a cucumber and onion mix. Freeda ALWAYS had time to give.

My friend, Freeda Helmuth.

An active member of Salem Mennonite Church, Nappanee, Freeda was involved with the Nappanee Missionary Church’s Sewing Circle and attended Nappanee Care Givers. But, Freeda’s “giving” wasn’t limited to church or missionary service work.

In 1936 Freeda married Eli and by 1959, they had eight children. Then they further expanded their family by taking in foster children needing a home. Over the next 25 years Freeda and Eli took in 46 children including those with handicaps and serious illnesses.

“Several children came that were so undernourished,” Freeda told me, “one girl was hit on the head by her daddy and was blind and paralyzed because of it. She had surgery on her head and was able to see and walk again. She was soon adopted after that.

“It’s hard to give up children in foster care. They never left without tears and a prayer, knowing that God would take care of them wherever they are.

“After 25 years we quit foster care. Five years later they wanted us to start up again, but in the meantime, friends and neighbors had started bringing in their babies and I started daycare. I did not realize it would last until now, over 20 years later.

“I just thank God for my health so I can continue to have the children since it helps pass the time and the days are not so long.”

In 1981, Freeda and Eli traveled to Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and Denmark. In 1987 they took a 6 week trip to Alaska. They went up to see the pipeline. While in Fairbanks, they saw an Eskimo lady sweeping the sidewalks.

Freeda grew up in North Dakota during a time of dust storms and the depression. She was the fifth child from a family of eleven. Her nearest neighbors were a mile away. This is a picture of the farm where she lived.

She said, “Are you what we call Amish?” She told Freeda and Eli that she had read about the Amish and that there were just a few left. Freeda told her there were Amish in almost every state in the United States.

Says Freeda, “She had the Shaker people in mind. There are just a few of them left.”

In 1990, when Eli was 80 years old, he and Freeda went to Paraguay, South America for two weeks for a wedding. In 1993, Eli had flu symptoms and a pain in his side.

Eli’s first horse and buggy.

Only it wasn’t the flu. Eli had had an abdominal aneurysm. Freeda and Eli had been married 57 years when he died. Together they had bought and paid for their farm. They had traveled around the world. They had raised 8 children and fostered 46. In addition, Freeda has 20 grandchildren and 24 greatgrandchildren.

“We had a good life,” said Freeda, “It was a busy one, I’m still busy and I have no regrets. The Lord has been good to me and for that I am grateful and truly at peace.”

Freeda Helmuth, 95, died Thursday at 3:30 p.m., March 3, 2011 at IU Health Goshen Hospital. Today, I believe that Freeda is caring for children. She is also encouraging each and every one of us to do ALL that we can to help those less fortunate.

I am grateful to have met Freeda Helmuth and blessed that she shared her story and friendship with me.

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