Church Finds Mission in Filling Basic Needs
What started as a college student's idea is blossoming into a mission at her church to provide basic needs to anyone in the…
What started as a college student’s idea is blossoming into a mission at her church to provide basic needs to anyone in the area looking for help with food or clothing.
“The idea popped into my head,” explained Ali Platek, a Munson Township resident and member of Fowlers Mill Christian Church.
She said she believes that God inspired the sudden thought.
“I had spent some time in a mission to Costa Rica and it was surprising to see all the poverty there,” Platek said, describing many people living day to day without basics, such as shoes, most Americans take for granted.
She and fellow students at Messiah College in Grantham, Penn., started a charity project they called “Hands to Feet,” in which they collected socks and shoes for those in need, especially the homeless.
“We called it that because it relates to the Body of Christ,” Platek said, adding her group collected 580 pairs of shoes and hundreds of pairs of warm socks.
“I feel a calling to help here at home,” she said.
So, she went to church officials with her idea.
With Platek’s encouragement, church members collected small items such as toothbrushes, pencils, small toys and colorful socks and placed them in shoe boxes, along with a loving personal message for The Samaritan’s Purse, an international program sponsored by Rev. Franklin Graham.
The program sends shoe boxes to children throughout the world.
“It’s great to be able to help children in other countries, but we see a need here, too,” said Lester Hilliard, a deacon at Fowlers Mill.
Platek and her helpers collected piles of donated shoes, socks and underwear for all ages, and church members took them to an inner city partner church and a homeless shelter in Youngstown.
“It was amazing what a few donated shoes and socks can do for people who have nothing,” Hilliard said. “They were so grateful. We left feeling that we’d really been able to help and share our Christianity with them.”
Platek added, “We hope to have more collections here. There are so many people in need right here.”
Hilliard said the church is expanding on Platek’s idea by collecting food and starting a pantry of non-perishables in the church basement.
“We have members who are having a hard time and others in the area who are in need,” Hilliard said. “This idea came to us a couple of weeks ago, to bring in food items for someone who needs it.”
Although he asks church members to bring in specific items each week — such as pasta, tuna or soup in order to establish a good balance of items — any donation is welcome.
“People can just drop off their donations at the church door and we’ll take care of it,” Hilliard said. “We’re taking canned items for right now, such as beans or canned vegetables, but we might expand later if we have the room.”
The pantry will be open to anyone who needs the food or who will take it to someone they know, but church officials or volunteers will monitor the program to prevent someone from taking more than they need.
“We know there is suffering and need everywhere, but we decided to address the need here as much as we can,” Hilliard said. “This is our mission in our own back yard.”
