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Thursday, August 14, 2008
Co-op has bare shelves but big hopes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The shelves are just about bare in the Southeast Gwinnett Cooperative Ministry.
That’s good and bad.
Good because the ministry is doing what it is intended to do — give what it receives to those who need it. Good because the non-profit organization has climbed back almost to the level of service it offered two years ago, before it closed its doors at its Snellville Main Street location and struggled to find a new home.
Bad because in this tight economy, with high gas prices, slow development and people out of work, the needs are greater than the contributions.
The ministry needs food — any type of canned and boxed goods. It needs money to help people through tough times. And it needs volunteers.
But it has spirit. I could feel it when I talked to Dan Yoest, the president of the co-op’s board. It is obvious in the voice of the Rev. Matt Henning, the pastor of Community of Grace church, on whose property the co-op has put down stakes. And it is abundant in Laura Drake, the co-op’s newly hired director.
Drake, who started her new job July 31, comes from the Lawrenceville Cooperative Ministry, where she has been a volunteer for seven years, the last three of which she was president of the board. She became involved in that ministry through her church, First United Methodist Church of Lawrenceville. But she lives in Snellville and says her move to the Southeast Co-op was a calling.
Drake’s background is in the financial world — accounting. But she has been a stay-at-home mom while raising her 11-year-old son Austin and 5-year-old daughter Katie. Because Katie starts kindergarten this year, Drake was thinking about what she should do next. Then a neighbor mentioned the need for a director for the Southeast Co-op, which serves the Snellville, Grayson and Loganville areas.
“It kind of resonated with me,” said the 41-year-old Tucker native. “The timing is right, and it was like the Lord trained me at Lawrenceville.”
Yoest said the co-op had an impressive pool of applicants to choose from when the board selected Drake. He sees her as “an answer to a prayer.”
“Laura’s just excellent,” said Henning. “She has huge gifts in development and a real passion to expand the ministry.”
Drake succeeds former director Beth Moffat, who moved to South Carolina to be near family, Henning said. “The board will miss [Moffat]. She was very helpful in the transition period.”
Yoest, who has led the board since the co-op’s reopening in October on the grounds of the Lutheran church at 1200 Athens Highway (U.S. 78) in Grayson, said the ministry has come a long way since that time, when it had to “start from scratch.”
He said the co-op has been serving about 135 to 150 families (about 500 family members, most of whom are children) monthly — about 6,000 people a year.
“That’s about what we were doing when we shut down originally,” he said. “But here in the last month, it has jumped significantly,” he said.
The co-op helped 517 people in the first two weeks of August — about double recent levels.
“I’ve never seen it this busy,” Henning said. The people who come are the working poor. With the construction industry hit so hard, the ministry is now seeing not only workers, but small business owners, he said.
The co-op issued a desperate plea to all pastors in the area this week, soliciting more contributions.
Churches, which are vital to the ministry, have come back on board since the re-opening, Yoest said. About 25 give some type of financial support, as well as food. About 10 others give food. But churches are seeing their revenues go down, too, he said.
Yoest is optimistic, however, that the community, and the co-op, will rise to the needs.
Drake says if every member of the churches who now support the cooperative gave one can of food per week and $1 per month, the co-op could serve the community “in a mighty way.” She also envisions a future in which support comes not only from churches, but from tennis teams, bridge clubs and individuals.
In addition to looking to the future, Drake takes the co-op’s mission one day at a time. So far it has worked, she said, giving the credit to her daily prayers and God’s help.
When 33 clients showed up for help on Monday and there were only a few food items on the shelves, Drake was concerned. But at the end of the day, they were able to serve everyone. Only a handful of the clients had needed food, she said. “It was amazing.”
Drake, who says her top priority is to help those in need and not turn anyone away, has other goals for the co-op, too — ones that involve its location, space, work flow and mission — which she discusses with no small amount of enthusiasm and passion.
“This is not just a job for me. I believe it is why I am on this earth at this time.”
Henning said the co-op probably needs to be 2 1/2 times larger in the volume of food and finances it can provide. He is confident Drake has the gifts to make that happen.
“If you wrote out a job description for the role of director, Laura would be that person.”
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