594 5th St NE Barberton Ohio
Mon 12-4pm Tue 6-8pm
Wed 12-5pm Fri 12-4pm
Food Pantry - Second Tuesday of the Month 6pm-7:30pm
About Us
Our Mission & Vision
Our Mission
We focus on making the maximum positive effort for our community. Sharing resources with lower income families and Homeless communities.
Our Vision
We want to be a part of a world where no one goes hungry. A world where everyone attains the right to survival without judgment. We pray for all communities to be treated with respect and kindness. Our hope is for every heart to be full after being in contact with our Outreaches.
501C3 Status
We are a Public Charity.
Donors can deduct contributions under IRC Section 170.
We are qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under Section 2055, 2106 or 2522.
Photo credit to Josh Fitzgerald- 34% https://instagram.com/34th_percent?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
OUR HISTORY
We began in Oct 2019 by gathering coats to take to the Homeless Community after Chris watched a facebook video. Chris and Meggan started to collect coats to take to the outreach who needed help. They gathered about 50 coats within a week and reached out to drop them off.
Chris and her husband were invited to a "Bando" (abandoned house) to drop off the items. They connected with some people living in the house who told them they knew where a camp was that needed some coats. We visited the camp and met the people living there and asked what else they needed......that was the start of it all.
Our visits haven't stopped since then. We began to prepare hot meals weekly, Meggan became our Queen of the 3 ingredient meals and Head Chef. We started to gather donations of supplies to take to our Friends. We were soon thereafter taken to other camps and started to be a trusted confidant with them. Our friendships grew and so did our desire to help.
We have grown from cooking meals out of Chris and Meggan’s Allstate office to purchasing a shed to continue to be able to store donations in. Along with renting storage units and cooking out of Meggans house. The need continued to grow through the pandemic and so did our need to be in one location!
We found our new home base in Barberton in Oct 2022. We now have the ability to cook, collect donations and be open to not only our friends in tents but the local community to help fulfill their needs. We have served over 15,000 meals onto the streets since Oct 2019 and given away more than 100,000 supplies items since Oct 2022.
Our Board & Administration
Christina Patterson - Executive Director, Co-Founder/ Board Member/Director of Boots on the Ground
Meggan Rafferty - Co Founder/Board Member/Treasurer
Allison Martzolf - Outreach Admin Director & Board Member
Brittany Zachry - Board Member/Community Garden Director
Michelle Graham - Board Member/Director of Fundraising
Melissa Johnston - Board Member/Director of Sober Friends
Franshire O'Neal Thomas - Board Member/Food Pantry Director
Teri Hall - Board Member/Director of Building Operations/Secretary
Renita Meyers - Board Member/Director of Boots on the Ground Emergency Response Team