Leeville United Methodist Church in Lebanon has received a grant for $7,845 from the Golden Cross Foundation to be used for building an expansion to the church’s SALT (Serving at the Lord’s Table) food pantry.
“Most food pantries require recipients to come to them,” SALT pantry coordinator Joyce Gaines said in a news release. “SALT volunteers deliver boxes of food twice a month to low-income seniors. Senior adults frequently have difficulty getting to the grocery store due to health problems, limited mobility, and/or lack of transportation. In addition, fixed incomes, medication costs, unexpected repairs, and high utility bills means seniors can’t always keep food in their pantries.”
Because of the increasing demand for food box deliveries — SALT volunteers deliver boxes to over 100 households twice a month — the original pantry space, opened in 2009, began bursting at the seams.
“Last year we began planning for a 900 square-foot pantry addition,” Gaines said. “Since God has regularly supplied our needs, our pastor at the time — Brother Bill Owen — encouraged us to dream big.”
Halfway to meeting their goal of raising $20,000, SALT members applied for a Golden Cross Foundation grant.
“That gave us the money we needed to begin,” Gaines said. “We received a building permit in April and had a ground-breaking ceremony in May.”
The Golden Cross Foundation is a non-profit corporation and extension ministry of the Tennessee Conference of The United Methodist Church.
