MUSTARD SEEDS. Largest fundraiser for MUST is among nation s largest holiday races

Transcription

1 MUSTARD SEEDS FALL 2015 Newsletter A PUBLICATION OF MUST MINISTRIES Largest fundraiser for MUST is among nation s largest holiday races Big sale open to public! There is nothing like being on the historic Marietta Square on Thanksgiving morning for the annual MUST Ministries Gobble Jog. Neighbors, friends, out-of-state guests and lots of families join together to help stop poverty in America s eighth largest Thanksgiving Day race. Come see hilarious costumes, Gobble Dogs, race mascot Colonel Mustard and all of the excitement of a street festival. Plus, this year, you can stay and skate on the new ice rink in Marietta s Winter Wonderland with all proceeds benefiting MUST! Glory Haus is a wonderful partner with MUST Ministries. This generous home décor company is hosting a warehouse sale on Nov. 11 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to benefit MUST! Come to 560 Webb Industrial Drive to find great bargains for Christmas and help those in need! Statewide day of giving planned Georgia Gives Day is almost here! For one day each year, Georgia Center for Nonprofits teams up with hundreds of Georgia-based nonprofit organizations to encourage donations and raise awareness for many different causes. This year, Georgia Gives Day is Thursday, November 12. From 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., Georgia Center for Nonprofits and other matching donors will give to the organizations with the most donations each hour. Whether its pennies saved or a large corporate donation, any donation is a gift to our neighbors in need. This November 12, keep MUST clients in mind and give at c/ggd/a/mustministries. Go to GobbleJog.org for details and race registration. Follow us on facebook (Gobble Jog has its own fan page!) or on twitter. Don t miss the 13th Annual Gobble Jog and help raise money for those in poverty in your community. MUST Ministries is a nonprofit, faith-based organization helping people in your community break the cycle of poverty. MUST provides basic needs such as groceries, hot meals, housing, emergency shelter, employment services and clothing. All services are free and provided without regard to income, race or religious beliefs.

2 SUMMER LUNCH TOPS TWO MILLION MEALS IN 20 YEARS OF SERVING CHILDREN Marking an amazing landmark in one of the area s oldest and most effective feeding programs, MUST Ministries celebrated the donation of the two millionth meal since the Summer Lunch program began in The July meal presentation, made by former Georgia governor Roy Barnes, a current MUST Board member, and Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin, represented years of compassionate service by volunteers and staff. MUST delivered meals in eight counties all summer and reached more than 8,500 children, according to Ike Reighard, Pres. and CEO. Our final total of 303,546 sack lunches shows the depth of commitment in our communities. Thousands of people worked to provide meals, check and pack the sacks, drive them to neighborhoods and collect food and money to help. While the need is heart-breaking, MUST is humbled to serve, Reighard stated. Our outstanding church host sites and extensive network of volunteers make this program effective. With thousands of children on free and reduced lunch, our summer mission to feed children in need continues to grow. Generous community members donate food, time and money to make the Summer Lunch program a meaningful outreach. Give to MUST s feeding program so your neighbors in need can get groceries, hot meals, Summer Lunches, holiday meals and Thanksgiving boxes. Go to mustministries.org or donate on our Facebook page. SECOND HAND GIVES A SECOND CHANCE The first ever MUST Marketplace HUGE TENT SALE brought beautiful weather and record sales. Everyone loves a deal and finding new cooking pans for a dollar to discovering an outdoor patio set for $125 brought delight to the buyers while helping MUST raise money for client services. More than $3,500 was raised at the largest sale to date. All proceeds benefit client services. Donate high quality items and shop at the MUST Marketplace! It s a great place to find new and used treasures! 2

3 MUSTARD SEEDS A photo recap of the 20th year serving hungry children Former Gov. Roy Barnes, a new board member at MUST, joins Summer Lunch alumni AliMae Hartley (center) to present the two millionth Summer Lunch and mark 20 meaningful years of this program. AliMae Hartley (left) shares her story of relying on MUST for meals during the summers as a current Summer Lunch recipient in Marietta listens. A little boy enjoys his Chick-fil-A meal as a special treat one day each summer. Chick-fil-A Day is always exciting! The good food, cow toys and the cow herd visited 7,500 children this year during Summer Lunch. Such a generous gift from our friends at Chick-fil-A. CHEROKEE EXPANDS WITH NEW PORTICO Thanks to the generosity of Watermarke Church, the MUST location in Cherokee now has a drive-thru. During inclement weather, the addition is a God send, but it also helps in pick up and drop off throughout the year. MUST friends and staff gathered to dedicate the new area earlier this year

4 FOOTBALL THEME SCORES BIG FOR MUST Hundreds of guests gathered at the College Football Hall of Fame to celebrate the 44th annual gala, the second largest fund raiser hosted by MUST. A tour of the new interactive museum was great fun, and then guests enjoyed the silent auction before a tailgate dinner and live auction. Special guests Coach Vince Dooley and UGA former quarterback and NFL player Eric Zeier (pictured here with MUST president Ike Reighard) joined the festivities, posing for pictures and signing autographs. For the first time, MUST encouraged college football attire at the gala and everyone enjoyed showing off their school loyalties with some friendly rivalries throughout the crowd. Saturday Feb. 20, p.m. Mack Powell & Mark Lee present An Acoustic Night of Praise Benefiting MUST Ministries 4 w w w.mustministries.org Roswell Street Baptist Church itickets will have tickets on sale soon!

5 MUSTARD SEEDS MUST ACQUIRES ALIVE TO TACKLE CHILDHOOD HUNGER MUST Ministries and Alive Ministries are merging to help for the communities we serve as we join forces to tackle child end the significant challenge of child hunger in the communities hunger together. they serve, according to MUST Pres. and CEO Ike Reighard. In the counties where MUST operates its Summer Lunch MUST served more than 20,700 children in poverty in the past and other food programs, more than 250,000 children face food year and Alive established school food pantries in 19 Cobb insecurity every day. Child hunger is a serious problem at our schools to reach more than 6,750 children in poverty this year. back door that will have major ramifications for our community The organizations and their respective boards have entered if we choose to sit on the sidelines and ignore it. We are putting into a definitive agreement to merge Alive Ministries into MUST a call out to the community to get in the game and help tackle Ministries, Reighard explained. MUST has acquired the assets of Alive and will continue to operate the Save It Forward couponing and food pantry initiative begun five years ago by Alive founder and executive director, Rhonda Smith. She is joining MUST as Senior Director of Program Operations and will continue to lead and expand the campus-based food pantry program. In fact, a pantry was added at the Graduate Marietta Student Success Center at Marietta High School on Oct. 22. This merger makes sense because eliminating child hunger has been a key initiative of MUST Ministries for years. Our 20-year Summer Lunch program alone has delivered more than two million sack MUST Team tackles childhood hunger. Chris Fields, Rhonda Smith and Ike Reighard plan details of lunches to hungry children. the merger that benefits area children. Under Smith s leadership, hunger for children in our local schools. Education provides Alive s team, their board and 2,000 dedicated volunteers have children with an opportunity to rise above their circumstances, built an innovative and sustainable program to provide for atbut it s difficult for a hungry child to learn, according to the risk children, maximizing their opportunities to succeed in MUST team. school a winning game plan that works, said Chris Fields, SVP of Programs and Administration for MUST. Smith adds, By teaming up and combining synergies, Go to mustministries.org and click on Donate to contribute to this unique campus-based food pantry program becomes a family in need in our schools. Donations can also be made on scalable allowing us to have a greater impact in the Cobb the MUST Ministries Facebook page. County community and the additional seven counties MUST now serves. This combined strategy has huge impact potential w w w. must mi n i st r i es.o rg 5 5

6 NEW FAMILY ROOM EXPANDS CAPACITY AT MUST SHELTER New accommodations include eight beds and a crib for families needing shelter. MUST Ministries is celebrating the addition of eight new beds benefitting families at the Elizabeth Inn Shelter in Marietta. The much-needed beds result in a total of 72 for men, women and children, increasing the family capacity at MUST s shelter by 42 percent. We ve seen an increase in demand for families seeking shelter, so this will help those families in need, says Rachel Castillo, Senior Director/Housing Services, While the additional beds help, we still have a significant need for shelter beds in Cobb County. MUST has the only emergency walk-up shelter in the area and focuses on work recovery and stable housing solutions. The Elizabeth Inn has been turning away an average of 10 persons each day because the shelter is at capacity. While MUST serves as a place of refuge for many facing difficult circumstances, MUST cannot always meet the large demand. In Cobb County alone, more than 87,700 people are living in poverty. MUST helps 31,000 of those annually; 65 percent of those are children. The Elizabeth Inn is not solely a shelter. It is a six week work recovery program that helps people get back to work and on the road to stability. The Elizabeth Inn provides extensive support services tailored to meet the unique needs of each client or family, according to Chris Fields, Senior Vice President of Programs and Administration. Those comprehensive services include three meals a day, case management, education, innovative employment services program and recovery meetings and assessments. In addition, many family services are provided to help stabilize those in need. MUST and its partners provide healthcare, backpacks for school, after school tutoring, toy shops at Christmas and many other family resources. At the recent dedication, MUST Ministries honored the North Georgia United Methodist Conference Housing and Homeless Council for their generous funding for the additional beds at the shelter. Give to the housing program at mustministries.org or sign up there to volunteer. 6

7 MUSTARD SEEDS JANET HUCKABEE VOLUNTEERS AT MUST DURING GEORGIA TOUR Kendall Jones, Program Director, Dale Cooper, Operations manager. Janet Huckabee and volunteer Gary Conrad talk about the 7,500 people who came to the Cherokee location for food last year and the 1,000 Thanksgiving boxes distributed there. No charity in Cherokee County is serving as many people in poverty as MUST, so pitching in to help in the MUST food pantry was a logical choice for Janet Huckabee. Wife of Presidential nominee Mike Huckabee, the Arkansas native said her Christian values of helping others and her role as a pastor s wife leads her to support local missions. She praised MUST for serving one of every two people in Cherokee who are struggling in financial instability. Almost 7,500 Cherokee residents came to MUST for help in the past year. DWIGHT IKE REIGHARD Career highlights: Reighard is the president and CEO of MUST Ministries, serving almost 34,000 people a year struggling in poverty. Ha has successfully combined business experience with ministry and has an outstanding reputation for transforming communities through serving others. In the corporate arena, he served as executive vice president, chief people officer and originator of The Office of People and Culture for HomeBanc Mortgage Corp. from 2000 until Reighard is also senior pastor at Piedmont Church. TOURNAMENT PROCEEDS BENEFIT THOSE IN NEED Pinetree Country Club is a beautiful setting for a fall tournament. MUST Ministries hosted 120 golfers on Sept. 21 in its largest and most successful tournament yet. The $35,000 raised will help the 38,600 clients who come to MUST for help and hope during financial instability

8 NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U. S. POSTAGE PAID MARIETTA, GA PERMIT NO Cobb Parkway North P.O. Box 1717 Marietta, GA For more information, volunteer application and lists of needs: MUST MINISTRIES Cherokee Program Services Donation Center Elizabeth Inn Campus Marietta Program Services Smyrna Program Services Are you connected? Find out the latest MUST news first and help us spread the good news about helping your neighbors in need! Like MUST on facebook, follow us on Twitter and view our videos on YouTube! Gobble Jog is getting in on the action too on Twitter. Gobble Jog has its own web site ( and facebook fan page! 2015 MUSTARD SEEDS is a publication of Must Ministries. All rights reserved.