By Quinn Lavespere, Message Summer Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY – There is an old adage that new things can be brought from old things, and a former church building in Montgomery fits that adage perfectly.
Under the direction of Karen Morace, Harvest of Hope mission center has experienced financial and spiritual success while inspiring its volunteers to help those in need.
[img_assist|nid=6499|title=Montgomery Mission Center experiences financial and spiritual growth under Director Karen Morace.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75]“We’re here because we want to be, but also because God sent us here,” Morace said. “We’re glad to be doing His work.”
Morace said the Harvest of Hope building, which opened on Feb. 11, 2002, was originally the home of Northside Baptist Church before its new church building was constructed.
“Northside doesn’t own the building,” Morace said. “We were essentially lent it for free by Mr. Eddie Gongre, who owns the building, but we absolutely take care of it.
“We originally opened it as a food bank, which it still is today,” Morace continued. “In order to make the money to pay for the food, we opened up what we call a clothes closet.
“We try to keep our clothes closet neat and clean,” Morace said. “We don’t sell anything that has buttons missing, is dirty or has marks or holes, and we have a heavy-duty light so the girls can see what they’re doing.
“Because we sell so many clothes, I don’t know how many clothes we sell overall,” Morace said. “We do make $75-$100 weekly.
“Food-wise, we serve approximately 360 families a month,” Morace said. “I can’t keep count of the people who come in here and buy stuff and donate.”
Morace said that everyone who works at Harvest of Hope is strictly a volunteer and that she and the staff operate strictly on a donation basis.
“It was the best way we knew to get everyone in the area food,” Morace said. “We have people who come from various parishes, such as Winn Parish and Grant Parish.
“We have 11 volunteers right now,” Morace added. “Our mission pastor is Kenneth Arnold, who comes and does devotions for 30 minutes each day.
“As for me, I replaced Sandra Jones as director about a year and a half ago,” Morace said. “However, I had been working up here for five years before that.”
Morace described in detail the activities performed in other parts of the mission center.
“In our pantry, we give 25 pounds of food to each family with four or less people and 30 pounds to families with five or more people,” Morace said. “We give 50 pounds of food if there’s an emergency – such as someone has been burnt or flooded out.
“All our food is put on pallets because it can’t be on the floor, and we separate the food according to USDA and state food standards,” Morace said. “We order the food from the food bank in Alexandria and use inmate help from the Grant Parish Sheriff’s Department to get the food here.
“Our main purpose is this pantry,” Morace said as she pointed out a storage room and freezers used for holding food. “I’m usually in the office interviewing people to become a client or renew, so that can help bring food to Harvest of Hope.
“We only use the kitchen for coffee,’ Morace continued, ‘but every once in a while, Mrs. Gayle Robertson, who is in charge of the kitchen, fixes the inmates a nice homecooked meal, and they just love it. We have a dryer to dampen and clean the clothes, and we use our kitchen sink to clean stuff that comes here.
“Dollar General was helping us out quite a bit,” Morace said, “until I read the small print and they found out that they weren’t supposed to help out religious organizations. We were in fact just about to do a canned-food thing with them at Christmas when they found out.”
Despite that setback, Morace said that God’s blessings on Harvest of Hope have been plentiful.
“He always brings us help,” Morace said. “He always makes sure we have money when our checking account gets a bit low, and we always have enough money to pay for those groceries. We’ve never had a problem with finances.
“The Lord is taking care of this mission center,” Morace said. “We make about $1,500 dollars each month, but we do have money at the Louisiana Baptist Foundation, and when we get over $2,000 or get $3,000, I put it in the savings account at the Foundation, because like I said earlier, though we don’t own the building, we still have to keep up the expenses.”
Morace said Harvest of Hope is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. – noon.
“We’re open all 12 months and only close for legal holidays or if there is a death of one of our volunteers,” Morace said. “We are very seriously thinking about opening up on the second Saturday of the month and only having the clothes closet open, because we’re getting a little tight on money, and we think that will help us.”
Today, Morace said, Harvest of Hope is going well, particularly in the fellowship between volunteers.
“There’s lots of love and no fussing or fighting,” Morace said. “We all work together as a team. The best thing that I can say is that everybody is so blessed by the Lord financially and spiritually, and they can feel God’s blessings on them.”
For the future, Morace hopes that Harvest of Hope can get more volunteers and expand more.
“We want to have 400 volunteers by the end of the year,” Morace said. “We want to expand, but that might be a little difficult because I’m not sure I can get volunteers in more than two days a week.”
Overall, Morace thoroughly enjoys her time at Harvest of Hope. “They’ll have to kick me out of here,” Morace said. “My coworkers have the same attitude.”