This non-profit, Christian based organization was founded by local area church leaders to serve the community, allowing for one central agency to utilize the resources offered by many different churches. Founded in 1990, this organization has brought many different people together to serve as Jesus' Hands and Feet to the low-income citizens of Mercer County. We rely on donations from individuals,
organizations and businesses to fund our entirely volunteer organization. We accept no government commodities or government grants which would inhibit our ministering to our clients in the name of Jesus Christ. We verify all income, family sizes and residency in Mercer County. Over one-hundred volunteers make the following ministries happen.
1) Food Pantry - serves 600+ families, involving 2,300+ individuals every month. These families make a combined 900+ visits every month. (Families can shop once every two weeks) We provide enough food each month to prepare over 54,000 meals.
2) The Mercer County Back Pack Program - serves any Kindergarten - 4th grade student, who qualifies for the "Free-Lunch" Program at school, with a bag of food every Friday of the school year. This school year we are serving 330 students that are in the school systems in Mercer County. Celina, Parkway, Coldwater, Fort Recovery, St. Henry and Marion Local school systems all participate in this important program. Each bag of food contains two breakfast, two lunches, two dinners, two snacks and two drinks, which sustains the children over the weekend so they arrive at school on Monday, ready to learn instead of watching the clock, waiting for lunch.
3) CALL Cafe - serves 65+ clients with a hot meal every Tuesday of the year. This meal is served at the Junior Fair Building at the Mercer County Fairgrounds and is open only to CALL Food Pantry Clients. Volunteers from fourteen different organizations provide the food, cook the food, serve the food then practice "Friend Evangelism" while they eat with the Clients.
4) "Work 4" Program - this program allows Clients to "work 4" large household items such as refrigerators, stoves, washers, dryers, couches, tables & chairs, etc. The large household items are donated to us, our volunteer places the number of hours on the item that must be "worked" to earn the item then if a client wants an item, they sign an agreement to complete the work in a specified number of days. we then place the client into a volunteer position with us or a number of different agencies and once the hours are completed they receive the item they were working for. In 2015, 83 clients have worked 445 hours to earn items.
5) Aquaponics Bay - We grow our own delicious and nutritious garden greens in a unique three-part system that consists of a tank of fish, a bacteria medium and a water tank to grow leafy greens. The fish supply raw nutrients, the bacteria convert these into plant food and the water tank contains vegetable plants to supply salad greens to supplement our clients' diets.
6) CALL Food Bank - God has blessed this ministry and our Board believes that God blesses us to be a blessing to others. We have a large warehouse and the ability to purchase large quantities of food items with large discounts direct from the manufacturer. This direct buying results in savings each year of well over $40,000. The Board then authorizes me to reach out to other food pantries and feeding organizations, offering them the same food items at our acquisition cost, thereby passing along some great and much needed savings to these smaller but very important agencies. We help agencies in Mercer, Auglaize, Allen and Shelby counties.
