Feeding Hope Executive Director Keri Juarez says her struggles in life are a part of God’s way of preparing her to help others.
The organization, previously called Families Feeding Families, has been providing meals to the community since 2004.
Juarez said that when she became executive director, she wanted to do more to help people grow and not just provide them with meals.
She feels she has the personal experiences to do just that.
“It just goes back to me,“Juarez said. “Like a lot of the things I grew up from and just evolving throughout life and I feel like God’s just placed me and I place myself in circumstances that he’s gotten me out of. He’s just showed me a full circle and so I believe that with all of those different interactions I’ve had throughout my life, from losing jobs to not having a job, to having depression, to growing to having a job to having stability. Just to see all those different factors in life. I believe that God allowed me to live in those different areas for a certain season and so I think he brought it all full circle for me to come back and give that knowledge to someone else.”
Juarez said she was poor growing up and that she has been in bad relationships.
“I’ve had depression,” she said. “That’s a part of mental health and I think that we all have a part of mental and addictions, right? We just pass judgment because we have homes and we are stable and we have a job. But, we look sometimes down on those who are homeless and don’t have those things, but yet we do internally have those things because we have addictions even from caffeine or nicotine. It may not have to be really bad but it’s the same circumstances. You just have to put yourself back into those people’s shoes from your situation that you’re sitting in.” Juarez gave examples of addictions and pointed out how much the same they are whether it be caffeine or drug use.
“Even though I may not have had addiction to those things, I feel like I have had addiction to other things and it’s hard to overcome those,” Juarez said. “So, I just put myself back in their place and just try to relate to them.”
She spoke of domestic violence or just feeling left out, and she had many friends who felt that way.
“I think that I can relate to a lot of those people and just let them know that they do matter and that they are worth something and that they can climb out of whatever situation they’re in if they choose to and they want to work for it,” Juarez said. “Then, I’m ready to be there to help them.”
When people who have been helped by Feeding Hope obtain a job, they are excited to come back and tell Juarez about it.
“They’ve brought me meals for myself,” Juarez said. “It’s kind of like the first thing they do. They go out and buy me a meal and bring it back to me. It’s almost like a thank you. So, that’s exciting and rewarding.”
Juarez recalled Feeding Hope helping a woman who had children to feed and was attending nursing school to better herself. She has since graduated and is now a nurse.
“It’s just things like that, that are very rewarding that people don’t see,” Juarez said. “We have another lady who has been very down and depressed and she just didn’t believe she was worth having a job or even having a life anymore. But over the last two years, we’ve been able to bring her out of that depressed state. She’s got a fulltime job and we’re still working on all of the pieces of the mental health to make her believe in herself again, but she’s working in the right direction. I feel like we’re already kind of doing that but with having that building and having that extra time with them, it will just give us more opportunities.”
Feeding Hope had a successful gala late last year and the organization is excited about plans to move into its building on East Florida Street in March as work on it is near completion.
“We continue to plan to have another one next year and the year after, just make it an annual thing,” Juarez said. “We weren’t expecting a large crowd as it was our first, but we had a tremendous turnout and we raised probably approximately $45,000.”
Presently, Feeding Hope serves meals from 5-6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Keithley Park, 315 N.E. Third Ave. When it’s cold, they serve at nearby Grace Baptist Church. On average, about 250 meals are served per night, but it’s been approximately 175-200 recently because of the cold weather.
A Thanksgiving dinner was served in the building last year.
“We had a tremendous turnout for that, too,” Juarez said. “We had so many coming in and we served out of the building and we just set up some makeshift tables and just had a ton of volunteers come out. We had some churches bring buses that knew where there were some homeless people and brought them in. It was a great turnout and we probably had 300 meals served that day.”
Future plans for Feeding Hope include serving meals on Sundays.
“On Sundays, we will have a church setting,” Juarez said. “A devotional is more of what we’ll have just to start giving out some information and trying to grow spiritually as well to those that we feed.”
The Turning Point, an organization founded by Dr. Greg Clay and Kevin Dale, will be assisting with devotionals.
“That’s really big news and I’m excited because then we’ll be able to not only feed them but spiritually feed them,” Juarez said. “But, we’ll also be able to spend time with them sitting at tables and getting to know them more on a one-onone basis and then maybe be able to provide some resources. We are teaming up with people like Work Ready force here in Durant. We’re trying to partner with them as well. Just different avenues.
FeedingHopehasalsoteamed up with Kicks for Kindness that provides free shoes and shoes were provided on Feb. 16.
Juarez said Feeding Hope wants to do more than just provide meals and the organization seeks to help people break generational curses.
“We want to be able to make sure that they can grow out of where they are currently if they choose to,” she said. “We want to let those children know and anyone know basically that there are more opportunities out there.”
Juarez, speaking from her own experience, said just having the knowledge and people that wanted to encourage her helped her become who she is today.
“I want to turn around and give that back to the community and I believe that will be one great way because I can sit with them at the tables,” she said. “I can really get to know them. We’ll be serving three days a week versus two with our end goal being six days a week, just as we can gather that many volunteers. We would love to have any churches or organizations or individuals reach out to us if they’re interested in serving a meal.”
Juarez said the different programs go hand in hand and that it all starts with one meal to begin friendships and build relationships that will help people to improve themselves and to help the younger generations climb out of poverty. She said Feeding Hope will stay focused on what they set out to do which is to serve meals.
“Our goal will stay focused on feeding only, but with the opportunities that we have and with the connections we have, why not just go ahead and help out the others with the information and knowledge that you have to give to others,” Juarez said. “So, that’s just kind of my goal and my circumstances.”
