Services for Churches - Grants Ministry

St. Andrew UMC - Using What They Have, Where They Are, To Be The Church

In  A Community of Character, Stanley Hauerwas said, “The primary social task of the church is to be itself.” So how does an affluent church in the richest city in the richest county in Texas (and among the richest in the country) be the church?

They pay attention to the spirit of God moving among them and answer God’s call to acts of grace, mercy, and justice. And because of that response – and help from a Texas Methodist Foundation grant – families will have a better chance for a life of self-reliance and dignity rather than dependence and poverty.

The Rev. Janet Collinsworth, executive director of the Seven Loaves Food Pantry and Community Center and minister of outreach and mission at St. Andrew, and Sharon Hasley, St. Andrew member and wife of senior pastor Robert Hasley, are two trailblazers whose passions began and help sustain this congregation’s response to poverty in the midst of prosperity.

Once they risked walking into uncharted territory, there was no restraining them – or God through them. They opened their doors on May 1, 2009, to one person. By June 132 people visited, and now they serve an average of 400 people each week, and as many as 1,000 a week in the holiday season. During 2010, they assisted 18,500 clients. “In six months we were at our five-year goal. God had a lot more in mind for us than what we included in our business plan,” Hasley wryly noted.

The food pantry quickly confirmed what they intuitively knew: hunger is ground into a complicated crucible with poverty, health care, education, and job skills. Since their clients had few options for other needs, they opened a clothes closet and began offering assistance with enrolling eligible clients in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or food stamp program. Both activities increase the purchasing power of their clients and improve the local economy.

Next they tackled health care. With help from Steve Love, St. Andrew member and president and CEO of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, the food pantry collaborated with the Collin County Adult Clinic to set up a new clinic in west Plano. Close to the church, the West Side Clinic serves roughly the same population as the food pantry, where few, if any, clients have health insurance. Opened in October 2010, the all-volunteer clinic provides primary and preventive care and prescription medication. No one is turned away for inability to pay, but patients are asked to make a donation of around $40 for $300 or more in medical services.

A major ingredient in the fight against hunger and poverty in their community is clarity about the urgencies of their neighbors. “Two-thirds of our clients live within five miles of the church and defy stereotypical views of them. Fifty-percent are dual income, two-parent families. They simply don’t have enough income to fully support their families,” Hasley explained.

Giving individuals and families the broad support and resources they need to move from being one missed paycheck or diagnosis away from destitute to building a stable, sustainable financial future is St. Andrew’s venture into what Hasley termed “the transformational piece.” A Texas Methodist Foundation grant has enabled them to launch an innovative approach to breaking the cycle of hunger and poverty called Project HOPE. Begun at Christ UMC in Plano, also a TMF grant recipient, Project HOPE participants receive financial aid carefully tied to education or job skills and become part of a congregational team that reinforces their efforts with both practical and spiritual support. The three-year TMF grant is being applied toward salary for a staff position to coordinate the program. TMF awarded $24,000 for years one and two, and $20,000 for year three, with a matching requirement for the final year.

“Our first two participants – of a goal of six – were identified through the food pantry,” said Robert Harder, Project HOPE Coordinator at St. Andrew. Both are single mothers with two children, leviathan struggles and no safety net or support system. Now one is an administrative assistant at the West Side Clinic and the other, whose son is pictured on a previous page, is attending her first of six classes toward an associate degree in child development.

“I hit rock bottom. My son was diagnosed with a brain tumor, my husband left, and I couldn’t work because I had to care for my son,” one explained. “The name Project HOPE is appropriate. They have given me hope when I had none – a way to improve my life and the lives of my children.”

No one can deny the challenges of being a Christian in an aggressively materialistic culture. Likewise, no one can deny how hard it is to be poor, especially among the prosperous. St. Andrew UMC has responded clearly, intentionally, relentlessly with acts of grace, mercy, and justice – using what they have, where they are, to be the church.