04/09/2016
Blessings of Grace Marion County Food Panty was started in 2009. It was started at the First United Methodist Church but is now a multi-denominational pantry with several churches involved. We serve about 300 clients each month. We provide 81 Backpacks each week during the school year. Creating Opportunities is a dba under the pantry’s 501©3.
Creating Opportunities in Marion County (COMC) was created out of a study that began at the First United Methodist Church in Jefferson two years ago. The study was to identify needs and resources to deal with the needs in our community. COMC has accomplished significant milestones on the way to meeting their initial goals: 1) assess community needs; 2) identify existing and potential resources; 3) bring together as many local entities and people as possible in this discovery process; and 4) foster discussions of potential strategies and synergies to better address the needs and concerns of the citizens of Marion County.
We have learned from other groups such as Partners in Prevention, who presented their Bridges Out of Poverty program, heard from other leaders like Christina Fulsom, Founder of East Texas Human Needs Network from Tyler. We hosted three symposiums in Jefferson with nearly six dozen individuals from the community and surrounding region participating. We have set up our Board of Directors for the organization.
Dr. John Cooper, Associate Professor of Practice, and Director of Texas Target Communities at Texas A & M ,
spoke addressing how a collaboration of a variety of organizations can provide resources and services to the area. He facilitated an overview of the results of a COMC survey of residents in Marion County on the topic of poverty and led participants in a conversation of promising strategies. He was instrumental in planning for programs and activities to overcome challenges facing the citizens of Marion County on the bottom rung of the ladder from poverty to prosperity. He also facilitated a Board discussion of organizing our efforts and building an infrastructure. Raising hope and faith by creating awareness and opportunities leading to a pathway out of poverty is the main goal of Creating Opportunities in Marion County.
Please visit our website and click below Dr. Coopers picture to see the statistics he provided. http://creatingopportunitiesmarioncounty.org/
Now we invite you to help us launch the next phase of our work.
On April 15th, 2016 we will be taking possession of a 25,000 square foot building, formerly Magnolia Manor Nursing facility at 502 East Bonham, on the corner of North Cass Street in Jefferson. The building was donated to COMC by the owner of two other nursing and rehab centers. They gave us office furniture and other items. We will be housing Blessings of Grace Food Pantry and plans are in the process for a clinic, a shelter, a community garden, rental office space for any resource that will help with our goals and facilities for holding seminars and meetings for mentors and other educational events such as “Getting Ahead in a Just Getting by World”.
First we need funding for a roof, liability and building insurance, remodeling, overhead costs, deposits for utilities, additional kitchen needs (a commercial refrigerator), office equipment and contractors. We ask your help to get this program off the ground to help us in one of the four poorest counties in the whole state of Texas.
Creating Opportunities in Marion County
