Feeding Hope, an organization that provides meals to the community, had its annual Night of Hope Gala banquet last month at Durant First United Methodist Church and plans for 2026 were announced.
Previously called Families Feeding Families, Feeding Hope has been serving meals to the community since 2004. Their building at 424 E. Florida St. opened in spring 2025.
Keri Juarez is the executive director of Feeding Hope, and she spoke about her background.
“How I became executive director of Feeding Hope is I was kind of on a mission to where I could help out in the community,” Juarez said. “I’d started out at a few different places volunteering but that just wasn’t the path that the Lord had for me. So, the path that the Lord chose for me, he just kept moving me and I knew it just didn’t feel right wherever I was volunteering. So, I was praying about it and as I was praying about it, I had some friends that came up to me just by Jesus’ directions and said, ‘Hey, we know that you’ve been volunteering and we would like to know if you would be interested in joining Feeding Hope’ and so of course, I was just excited. Feeding Hope was right up my alley and just the name really helped me know that that’s where I should be.”
Juarez said that growing up in school, she had a diffi cult childhood.
“It wasn’t bad or anything but it just was different and so I had a lot of teachers that loved me and a lot of it’s just, one of my pastors always says, ‘It’s love people, love God and if you love God, then you’ll love people,’ and so that’s just where it really started with me was being loved by my teachers, by my librarians and loved at home, but differently than some other kids,” she said. “That’s just having all of that love and sometimes having to use the resources that were provided in the community for my family, whether it be from Choctaw Nation or another hand up, that’s where I kind of came from. So, they asked me, ‘Do you want to join,’ and of course I did.”
Feeding Hope served about 250 meals each Tuesday and Thursday when they were serving at Keithley Park. They began serving in the new building in May 2025.
“The difference between what we were doing then and doing now is we were serving from the park so we were serving in to-go meal boxes and so people could come up and just grab meals on their way home which is really great in helping those people, but we weren’t getting the connection,” Juarez said. So, we started raising money and we were able to raise enough money to build our new building that we have now. It’s a beautiful building and that was all provided by the community.”
Currently, Feeding Hope is serving meals from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and the long-term goal is to serve six days per week, according to Juarez.
She said they are serving about half of the people they were at the park, but they are doing it in a more meaningful way.
“We’re finding out who the people are and what their stories are and how we can truly help people because I know that a lot of people, they want to not just feed even though we are feeding them physically, we also are feeding them spiritual stuff,” Juarez said. “We partnered with a group, Turning Point here in Durant, and Turning Point comes and does a devotional on Sunday nights. So, that’s been tremendous.”
Juarez said she started meeting with a new group consisting of several agencies from the state, the Lighthouse Behavioral Wellness Center, community members and churches to discuss how to provide long-term help to get people’s lives turned around. In July, they were looking to get people out of the elements who did not have a place to cool off.
“We had several private donors fund what we called our seasonal relief center,” Juarez said. “We opened that up from July 1st through the middle of September,” Juarez said.
“Over that two and a half months, we provided over 250 showers,” Juarez said. “We did over 30 loads of laundry and we were able to provide not only just those but we were also able to have the state come in and help anybody who could get on SoonerCare and we also were able to help anybody coming in that may have mental issues or depression and we were able to partner with Lighthouse Behavioral Health.”
She said funds from golf tournaments and the gala will keep the relief center going in 2026. Warming centers will be available Jan. 19 through Feb. 28 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 3-6 p.m. Sunday at Feeding Hope, 424. E. Florida St. Grace Baptist Church, 206 E. Main St., will open from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
When SNAP benefits were suspended during the government shutdown, the Durant Church of Christ stepped in and served meals at Feeding Hope on Saturdays, according to Juarez. They plan to continue that at least through February. Free meals and other services will be provided.
“On their way in, they would also give them a backpack full of food,” Juarez said. “So, that was something that they are doing even though that the SNAP benefits have been reestablished.”
For 2026, Feeding Hope will be forming a new group called Housing Hope.
“We have a lot of hope here in the community,” Juarez said. “We have a Life Hope that helps us, we have Hands of Hope that we teamed up with and now we have Feeding Hope and then we have Housing Hope. So, it just shows me that God’s really prepared this community and he’s really just walking right in front of us to allow us to serve him and to show his love for his people.”
Feeding Hope was able to purchase land across the street from their facility because of donations.
“We’re trying to build not a homeless shelter, but we are trying to provide families with homes, affordable homes,” Juarez said. “We will vet them to see where they’re at to see that they do want to get off of the streets and that they can move forward with all of the resources that we’re gaining. This is probably one of the first times in my life that I’ve ever seen a lot of agencies coming together from state levels, from community levels, from churches, from individuals, from businesses. I know that people like to say this is my baby and this is what I started but this group that we did that we have going right now never wants that. Nobody wants to outshine. We all just want to work together and bring all the pieces together so we can love our community together.”
Juarez shared the story of a couple who struggled with addiction and they were helped by the love from Feeding Hope. They are now sober and spending time with children and grandchildren. Juarez called them one of her recovery stories.
The woman provided Juarez some words for Juarez to read at the banquet.
“We had no family or people in Durant and especially the first year, it was so depressing but when we heard about Feeding Hope serving dinner, it helped make the season feel like it was supposed to with all of the kinds of foods we grew up on at home,” Juarez said, reading from what the woman wrote. “Honestly, as a 62-year-old recovering addict, it also kept us from having to always steal food, especially in the winter.
“Feeding Hope is just that little bit of hope you need when you’re in a situation, whether it be no family, depression, alcoholism or addiction or whatever walk of life brought you there. It makes you feel a little bit of human kindness in the world today and that can be the difference between feeling like you just want to give up and die. Feeding Hope let us know that they cared about us and that we would be able to hold on, too.”
John Coley of Turning Point, the group that gives devotionals Sunday nights, said he blew up his world with sin and scandal that cost him almost everything, but that God restored things. One day, he saw a homeless encampment, and he felt he had to go meet the people there.
“That was the beginning of my friendship with the folks living in the encampments before they got moved off,” Coley said. “I got involved with Turning Point and I connected all the more with folks that were in this community and here’s the thing, the reason this all relates as when I look back as I got involved with recovery and all these things, I realized I’m those people. Forget that those people stuff. I know what it’s like to need a ridiculous amount of grace. I know what it’s like to need forgiveness for the unforgivable. I know what it’s like to think you’ll always be seen as your worst moment.”
Juarez is excited about the amount raised during the gala.
“We were blessed with about 30K from our gala,” she said.
