Members of Provide Hope, which partners with The Rock Church, greet folks and load food boxes on Wednesday, Dec. 23 for the drive-through food pantry outside The Rock Church in Monroe, 16891 146th St. SE off of Fryelands Boulevard.
Jim Scolman
MONROE — The local charity Provide Hope stays true to its name, providing food and home goods for anyone in need.
Despite twice-a-week food distribution and monthly “blessings” in the form of useful home products, the charity still has more to give.
“They can go through twice, if they want to,” Provide Hope coordinator Shannon Hill said. “We have just been inundated with all of this extra food, and we’re not getting enough people to come.”
Partnered with The Rock Church, Provide Hope distributes groceries and food on Wednesdays via drive-through and Fridays inside the church, abiding by COVID regulations and limiting capacity. Anyone in need can come to either distribution day and will leave with groceries. Fresh produce and cuts of meat are available as well.
In recent years, Provide Hope has offered families to come to pick out home goods donated by the store Bed, Bath and Beyond once a month for what it calls the Blessings Trailer. COVID regulations required the format to change.
It is one service Provide Hope offers that is not utilized as much as it should be, according to Hill. So last month the Blessings Trailer’s coordinator, Jodi Nix, started a Facebook page hoping to spread the word.
“We just finished our (latest) giveaway last night, which was the Christmas giveaway,” Nix said Wednesday, Dec. 23. “We had over 100 items, which was incredible. Normally we would do two rounds, well this last time we did three rounds.”
Once a month Nix goes through the trailer and pulls things to do a giveaway. Although the trailer is not well-known right now, the organization hopes to change that and reach more people.
“The whole point of the (Facebook) group was to be able to get the word out about the trailer,” Nix said. “And then, you know, once it gets out, and people start getting free stuff, it has gotten crazy.”
For the last decade, they have been receiving display and returned items from Bed, Bath and Beyond to be distributed. Within the past few years, the distribution took place out of a semi-truck trailer parked behind The Rock Church in Monroe, 16891 146th St. SE off of Fryelands Boulevard.
According to Nix, the trailer will soon be receiving items from Walmart as well.
Nix said anyone can email her for specific needs or requests at donations@providehope.org and she will try to accommodate. On the third Monday of every month, Nix posts numbered items to the Facebook group page and whoever claims the item first in the comments can pick it up the following Monday. To join the group visit www.facebook.com/groups/374855816953226. For more information regarding food distribution, visit www.providehope.org or Provide Hope’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ProvideHopeFR.
