CJ food bank now open Saturdays
Located at Fountain of Life, pantry serves up to 70 families per week
From our weekly issue dated August 05, 2009
Starting this month, a Cave Junction-based food bank will be open three days a week in an attempt to better serve the hungry and needy.
Melanie Hoskins has operated the food bank since November 2007. It wasn’t her first taste of volunteer charity work, as she has been active with the Gospel Rescue Mission for nearly a decade, and Lifelines Prison Ministry for nearly 15 years.
Hoskins said that when the food bank began, it was a mobile operation. She would phone people and make deliveries, but then the back room of a house was offered as a stationary site. Last October, the Fountain of Life Assembly of God Church agreed to allow its garage to be used for a permanent food bank facility. Donations for shelves, refrigerators and freezers soon followed.
“It just kind of fell together,” Hoskins said.
The food bank, at 481 S. Junction Ave., has been open from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursdays. It now also is open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon. Anywhere from 40 to 70 families are aided by the food bank every week, Hoskins said. Items are set up similar to how they would be in a grocery store, which enables clients to select their own food.
Much of the food is paid for by grants from the Josephine County Food Bank. Hoskins credits its executive director, Susan Scheufele, for her efforts. “She’s really done a lot to boost us for this,” Hoskins said. “She really goes to bat for everyone in Josephine County.”
In June, the food bank started a “fresh alliance” program with Shop Smart Food Warehouse in Cave Junction. Four days a week, Hoskins picks food up there, which added more than 5,500 pounds to the operation’s inventory in June alone.
“I think they’ve really increased the amount of food we’re getting,” Hoskins said.
Advertisement:
Smaller donations also help the program considerably, and often pay for gasoline and some of the food. Hoskins said that she can fill a van with food for $200 or less. All that assistance from a variety of sources has made the food bank a successful endeavor.
“It just runs itself,” Hoskins said. “It’s an amazing thing to watch. It’s an incredible program.”
The prison ministry also has moved to the Fountain of Life Assembly of God. It involves sending 3,500 newsletters per month to inmates in 47 states and 11 other countries. Hoskins said that the prison ministry’s main function is to encourage inmates to believe in themselves and change for the better.
“We try to be family with them,” she said. “When you’re down and out, that’s when you need to be loved. That’s when the rehabilitation starts.”
Ultimately, whether through the food bank or the prison ministry, Hoskins said that her greatest satisfaction comes from helping others. “We’re just a bunch of people serving a bunch of people,” Hoskins said.
Advertisement:
