Moving into November usually marks the beginning of the busiest time of year for Good Samaritan Ministries, but this year it appears the rush may have begun earlier.
During the month of October 1,092 families came to the food pantry for grocery staples. Of that number, 54 were new families that had never had to ask for help before and three were homeless. That’s up more than 80 families from the same time last year. And, if you’ll remember, 2011 set records all year long for the highest number of families each month ever in the history of GSM.
“If this is setting precedence for how the rest of the year will go, then we can expect to see continued increases for the next two months,” said Angelia Bostick, Executive Director of Good Samaritan Ministries. “We’re already starting to see the results from local temporary layoffs and reductions in hours because of the holidays.”
In order to continue to meet the needs of our friends and neighbors, the continued support from the community is so important.
“From food drives to financial support, there’s no way we could do what we do without the support from our community,” Bostick said. “And there are so many different ways people can give, there’s bound to be an area of interest to just about anyone.”
Some programs that people can contribute to through the end of the year include:
The Deer Project – We need hunters to donate their legally tagged deer to one of our participating processors: M&M Processing, Perk’s Deer Processing, Lone Star Taxidermy and Processing and Santa Anna Custom Processing. We also need people to donate monetarily to cover the cost of processing. It only takes $1 per pound of meat so a donation in any amount goes a long way to cover the cost of processing.
Food for Thought – Donations of individually packaged, easy-to-open, shelf stable food can be donated for the program that provides a weekend’s worth of food to chronically hungry students in Brown County Schools. Foods like Vienna sausages, peanut butter, jerky, peanut butter crackers, pudding cups, etc. are all great for this program. If you’d rather donate financially, $4.50 is all it takes to provide a bag of food to one student over one weekend. That’s about $166 for one student for the entire school year. Again, a monetary donation in any amount can help feed hungry students.
Christmas boxes – Every year in December, we provide a box filled with most of the ingredients needed to prepare a traditional Christmas dinner. We have donation boxes set up at various businesses around town throughout November and December where you can bring by your canned food and shelf stable donations. As of right now, donation boxes are located at Davis Morris Funeral Home, KOXE Radio Station, Wendlee Broadcasting, First Central Credit Union and McCoy’s Building Supply.
Or, if you’d rather, did you know you could give a monetary gift in honor of or in memory of someone? It’s an incredible gift for the person who has everything or a beautiful tribute to a loved one.
“I know there are so many different programs to support, and it can be overwhelming –especially considering this is only through the end of the year,” Bostick said. “We’ll start over again with other programs in January.”
Bostick asked that anyone who gives a monetary gift please designate which program it should go to. When donations are designated, they can only be used for the place requested. For example, donations given specifically for the Deer Project can only be used to process deer while money given to the Food for Thought program can only be used to purchase food for that specific program.
Of course, there is always still the general food pantry fund from which we will restock the shelves for the rush in January and the general fund where the light bill gets paid and employee checks are cut.
“If the decisions are too much and you can’t decide which project to support, you can always make a donation and designate it “where needed most,” Bostick said. “That gives us a little more leeway to use the donation in the area in which it will do the most good at the time.”
Anyone who would like to make a donation of any kind may mail a check to P.O. Box 1136, Brownwood, TX 76804, bring it by 305 Clark Street where you can make a donation with credit card or make a payment online via PayPal at goodsambwd.org.
