When I first interviewed with the congregation and we talked about what being a turn around congregation would look like and I asked them to trow around ideas that they talked about one of the major ideas was expanding their food panty. They wanted to make it into a bigger ministry.
After I took the call and started as pastor I knew that growing a food pantry was not the answer to turn around, but I did see it as a means to an early victory in the turn around process. I felt that if the congregation could come together and grow their food pantry they could see that maybe they could come together and do more. This was not an easy task. When I started the food pantry was open one day a month, the 2nd Wednesday, from 7:30am - 9:00am. You read that right. One day a month for an hour and a half at the butt crack of dawn. They were serving an average of 13 families a month.
I put together a team to think of ways to expand the food pantry, we went to visit other pantries in the neighborhood and it was decided to take baby steps. They did not want to expand days, like going to one day a week instead of one day a month, but they were willing to expand the hours. So, instead of 7:30-9:00 they are open from 8:00-11:00, 3 hours. The number of families served doubled to about 25 and this remained steady for a few months. Then, I had a meeting with our alderman to talk about ministry ideas in the community. I shared with her that we had a food pantry and she had no idea - and our church sits right across the street from her office! She was shocked to hear that we have a food pantry.
With that knowledge I decide to heavily advertize the food pantry. I bought banners, posted it on the congregations new church sign that sits on a busy intersection, I put it as a place on google maps and yahoo and yelp. I made business cards and gave them to every one I knew and shared the information with the local neighborhood councils. Within 2 months the food pantry was serving 90 families a month. It was a hard growing curve. It went from a tiny operation to a large one over night but the crew did an amazing job with the growth spurt. We got donations from Panera Bread, we got feeder congregations and a real routine was set up for distribution day. Now, it's the congregation's pride and joy - as well it should be. And, it's the one ministry the congregation hopes will be passed on to another congregation.
It's been in the back of my mind for a few months, knowing that I will have to start making contacts about finding a new home for the food pantry. I made simple attempts by talking to the pastors of a few neighborhood congregations but I was often told that it wasn't in the focused mission of the congregation or it was too big of a mission to take on. I knew I was going to have to talk to the alderman eventually - but if you know anything about Chicago politics... talking to aldermen... not my favorite activity (even though ours is pretty nice).
Well, I really think that God lead me to this website and prompted me to write a response because after that I got a flood of responses. Some were thanking the congregation for its ministry but then there were a few about the congregations food pantry and people connected in the neighborhood and the alderman offering to help us find a home for the pantry. Wow! I am now following up on leads and I hope it leads to something soon. But, I am much farther a long now than I was 24 hours ago, and I no longer feel burdened by the fact that I have to find this large operation and ministry a new home. It seems doable now.
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