Thermal Belt Outreach Ministry (“Outreach”) and the dedicated volunteers from Good Shepherd Church crossed an important milestone last week.

During 2010 Good Shepherd Church invested in a Gift-In-Kind program on behalf of Outreach. The Gift-In-Kind program is run by the United Way of Spartanburg and it allows nonprofit member organizations to visit the facility once a week to pick up household and personal care items for free.

Since the inception of the program, the goal shared by both Outreach and Good Shepherd volunteers has been to pick up and deliver $100,000 worth of goods to individuals and families of Polk County during the course of one year.

“The ability to increase the volume of goods that we give away is what drove our desire to expand our food pantry this past summer,” said Joe Epley, president of Outreach.  “Our goal was to be able to procure and deliver more goods to the community’s growing population of economically vulnerable individuals and families and we’ve met that objective.”

Carol Newton, Outreach’s executive director, added, “The items that we can give away – personal care products, paper products and other goods – are part of the basic necessities of life and we are fortunate that we are able to distribute these items, thereby saving our clients’ money and allowing them to direct their funds towards other needs such as rent, utilities, medical bills and similar expenses.”

Outreach is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1991.  The organization’s mission is to provide compassionate assistance to Polk County residents who are unable to provide for their basic life needs.  For more information on Outreach, please visit www.tboutreach.org or call 828-894-2988.

-article submitted 

by Wendy Thomas