Volunteers Not Giving Up On Community Service Despite Virus
Volunteers Not Giving Up On Community Service Despite Virus
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Volunteers Not Giving Up On Community Service Despite VirusNot everyone can afford to just go to the local store and pick up supplies like toilet paper during an emergency like the coronavirus pandemic the last few weeks.
Or have enough to eat when the store shelves go bare.
The Community Closet at First United Methodist Church, 179 S. Indiana St., Warsaw, was helping people with those needs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday. Volunteers were giving out supplies like laundry detergent and dish soap, along with sack lunches. Parents with children also were provided with some diapers.
“We’re generally open every Wednesday of the month, except the first Wednesday, to give people supplies they can’t buy with food stamps,” said Community Closet volunteer Deb Bishop.
The soup kitchen is every Wednesday, but due to the pandemic, sack lunches were given out Wednesday. During “normal” times, about 86 families a week are served by the Community Closet, or about 300 people. There’s about 100 to 200 meals served in the soup kitchen each week, Bishop said.
Including Bishop, there were seven volunteers assisting with the program Wednesday.
“I think this is the best thing I do, the best volunteering I do, because I know people and I know they need things,” Bishop said.
While the Community Closet has been around for 10 years, Pastor Brian Smith has only been at the church for almost two years.
When he first arrived at the church and heard about the soup kitchen, Smith said, “My first thought was, ‘very, very cool,’ but I’ve got to see how this works. So after the first time I saw what happened, it was really an eye-opener because people come because they like a sense of community. Some of them have need for food, but a lot of them just come because there’s a community where they sit down at a table and have conversation with somebody else. So that was one of the big blessings I saw with what happens here on Wednesdays with people being able to come together and sit around a table and be a family.”
Now with the coronavirus, and Gov. Eric Holcomb’s order for people to stay home except for essential travel like work or grocery shopping until 11:59 p.m. April 6, Smith acknowledged that’s “messed up” that sense of community some people find at the soup kitchen and Community Closet.
“That’s the big change right now, just handing items to people. They don’t have that chance to sit down and be able to be a family like they were before,” Smith said.
He said the church will continue to keep doing the soup kitchen and Community Closet for as long as they can, while continuing to connect to the community.
“That’s one of the nice things is that we get to see them at least and say, ‘hey, how are things going?’ and have a chance to pray with them if they need prayer,” Smith said. “But, we miss being able to just kind of hang out with them and be a family with them the short time they are here. But, we’ll keep doing this as long as we’re able to.”
