Expanding our Reach
by Chris Lemmons
A representative from a newly built apartments for seniors, mostly with low income reached out to us and others trying to find some support for some of its residents who are food insecure. They were hoping for anything that would make the lives of some of its residents easier and were open to whatever we might be willing to do. After several meetings and some red tape we began taking non perishables and meat once per month to certain residents previously identified as being particularly in need.
One of the biproducts of this relationship was realized during the exploratory phase. The adjoining building to the apartments is also a fairly new build, occupied by an organization called Coreluv. Their mission is to support orphans in other countries but this particular building is somewhat of a new concept for them as it’s primary focus is offices and a space for people to come pray, aptly named “Nations House of Prayer”. We quickly met with Coreluv to see what their willingness might be to having a once per month excess produce and bread giveaway. You may or may not remember a past article identifying and asking to join in prayer for opportunities to use our leftovers from our twice weekly distributions but to also have the opportunity to meet new people. The idea being that we could bring necessities to some struggling seniors and also bring excess produce and bread to share with the neighborhood. Coreluv comes into the equation because the apartments don’t have the parking lot space to facilitate a giveaway like this.
All this happens in some difficult areas around the University of Houston campus in what’s known as 3rd Ward. The thinking in partnering with these two entities was that they surely have a footprint within that community and would be able to spread the word about the blessings we at Impact deem as “leftovers”. The relationship with these two entities is still developing and only recently has coreluv decided to start canvassing the neighborhood with fliers to spread the word to those who have not heard what is happening. We don’t have a plan for the future of these relationships, or expectations for whatever might come from it. We simply want to be good stewards of the things God has entrusted to us and to never stop looking out for people who need us too.
