Church of the Palms Interview

BRUCE HEDGEPETH TELECONFERENCE

2.2.15

AGENDA

• Bruce Hedgepeth, Associate Pastor, Church of the Palms, Sarasota, Fl.  He is responsible for the Food Pantry.  He reports to Steve McConnell.
• Background - Discussed with him briefly about our journey starting with Men's Ministry expansion and community outreach events that resulted in our meeting Pastor Antoine Thomas via a bible study.
• Freedom Ministry Food Bank Overview - 3 Saturdays per month, County Relief Source, Volunteers - 8, 450 clients per month, distribution - church parking lot/sanctuary, client demo - 70% hispanic, none are members of church
• Church of the Palms Overview - client base, church members, food sources, leadership of volunteers, scope of solution

FEEDBACK

• Church of the Palms in Sarasota, Fl has been supporting a food ministry for 10 years.  They serve 16,000 clients per year via a church based FOOD PANTRY on their campus.  The food pantry is supported by about 80 volunteers in the church who participate in a variety of duties including manning the panty 5 days per week, packing the client bags and conducting a special offering service yearly around Thanksgiving.  The program costs are $98,000 per year.  They are running a surplus primarily due to efficient food access efforts by the staff.
• The source of food comes from a variety of means.  The church does provide a paid staff member who sources the food for the pantry.  The main source is a local county FOOD BANK called All Faith Food Bank serving over 100 pantries, soup kitchens and others in Sarasota.  The food is purchased from the food bank.  The food bank is a non profit operation that contracts with government, manufacturers and grocery operations locally and then sells their product to the pantries in the community.  Some food is a little cheaper than a grocery store, some is free including government sourced food.  Some is donated from stores and manufacturers.
• The United Way 211 in Sarasota has a special food and services related program in which clients are registered to find out about services.  The client list for the Food Pantry comes from United Way primarily as clients are directed to differing Food Pantries in the county.  This service expands access to client information, and coordination.
• Funding of the program is primarily via special offerings to the Food Pantry, similar to our Honduras Christmas Offering.  They generate $40,000 per year in a once per year special offering at a worship service near Thanksgiving.  They also receive an average of $3000 per month from friends of the Pantry out of the congregation.  Finally, they have received direct government grants which have totalled nearly $20,000 per year from FEMA and other government agencies.  The Food Pantry operation is housed in a conference room (think Multi Purpose) with moveable shelving.  This lockable center is where food packages are assembled and inventory of food is stored.  The distribution takes place at an outside door entrance where clients are greeted, bags dispersed and other food items selected like fresh vegetables.

Church of the Palms has developed many best practices over their 10 years in ministry.  Some of their ideas offer us in the FMP some possible areas to explore.  We can review this at our next meeting.