Construction of the Feeding Hope building that will be used to serve meals to the community is continuing.
Feeding Hope, formerly called Families Feeding Families, has been providing meals to the community for 20 years and they received a $100,000 donation which the organization was able to match with fundraising for a total of $200,000.
Keri Juarez, executive director of Feeding Hope, said the $100,000 donation was contingent upon a match by the end of the year which they were able to do.
“So, we started our building which is at 424 East Florida,” Juarez said.
The steel frame was recently built and sheet-metal walls are now on the building along with some of the bricks, so the organization is getting close to being able to move in.
“We don’t have a real end date because a lot of the community is donating their labor so we’re just getting on their books,” Juarez said. “Our contractor, Alan Hobbs, has donated his time and labor to us, so he’s working with a lot of different contractors just to save us all the money we can since we’re a non-profit, and get this thing built so we can start serving.”
Currently, Feeding Hope serves meals on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Keithley Park.
“Our end goal long-term is to be serving six days a week,” Juarez said. “We serve just an evening meal. On Sundays, we will start having a worship service to add to it and then we will also provide resources to be able to help the community.”
On average, 150-175 meals are served on those nights although the amount can vary.
“Sometimes, a grandparent will stop because they’re raising their grand kids or a single parent and then we feed some of the homeless population and so it just kind of varies,” Juarez said.
During a recent week, 230 meals were served on a Tuesday and then on Thursday, 186 were fed.
“We started two years ago kind of revving it back up and getting back out and whenever I came on, we were serving then only about 50 meals,” Juarez said. “Thirtyfive to 50 meals was top. Over the last two years, we’ve definitely grown.
“We have several churches and they come together and they volunteer once a month and then some of our volunteers volunteer quarterly and so we have a lot of people like J127. We have Burrage Law Firm, so just different entities and different churches. We have probably five churches that serve every month and then we have a few churches that pick up once a quarter.”
Asian Gourmet also contributes to the program.
The organization was founded in 2004 by Brian and Leticia Burkhalter, who saw a need in the community. Mr. Burkhalter had health problems and he recently passed away.
Mrs. Burkhalter stepped down in December 2021 and Juarez became director in March 2022. Juarez was volunteering at The Mission during that time and when offered the executive position, she said she could not take it quickly enough.
“The board was just meeting monthly to decide on what they were going to do, and in the meantime, God was working on me to align with this ministry,” Juarez said. “I just happened to say, ‘I’m looking to work in the ministry of helping others’ to a friend, and she told her friend on the Feeding Hope board, and they reached out, and it started from there.”
Meals were originally served from the former George Washington Elementary School cafeteria until that building was sold. They started serving meals from different places and then COVID hit, so meals were delivered for a while.
“We do not currently deliver, but the way the organization runs right now is we allow anyone to pick up meals for other people and then if we have any food left over I always tell them that we have different charities that we work with like J127 and the women’s shelter, the crisis center, and we will take meals to them,” Juarez said.
Once the building is completed, Feeding Hope will serve all of its meals cafeteria style, Juarez said.
She said Feeding Hope is trying to obtain more property and that they would love to have a community garden.
“So, that’s something that we’re just trying to find a property that’s very near and just praying that those doors are opened,” Juarez said. “That would be a great asset for us to have with the community and for those that want to give back, but they’re falling on hard times so they would be able to volunteer. It would also profit them if we have a large garden that we could also share free fruits and vegetables with the community.”
Fundraising events that are upcoming include a golf tournament on July 18 at Chickasaw Pointe and on July 27, there will be a dice run and auction hosted by Three Valley Riders at the Elks Lodge.
Juarez said the organization is eager to move into the new building.
“We’re just thankful for all of the support and just all of the funding that just continues to come and we have various people that come, like (recently) we had Murray State College basketball men’s team,” Juarez said. “They came and served, so I just think that a lot of people can’t wait until we get in the building so that they can come and we can provide more volunteer work and provide more opportunities to the community.”
