Your time is valuable.  Time is money.  We hear those phrases a lot, but nowhere is that more true than in making a difference in someone’s life!

While monetary donations are welcome and necessary, that isn’t and shouldn’t be the only way to get involved. Your giving is multiplied so much more by giving of your time. You can find many ways to volunteer your time-stocking shelves with food, helping people fill out paperwork, carrying groceries to cars, or just sitting with someone getting to know them and listening to their stories.
Those actions can mean so much to the people you are helping and to yourself!  These things can even be done as a family, so your kids can learn the value of giving to others at a young age!

Your time really is valuable!

During the month of July, Mock Tire @ Southpark conducted a food drive for Agape Care & Share. The 128 items collected assisted in feeding 26 families that would have gone without. Thank you Mock Tire for having a heart for your neighbors.

Due to the economic conditions, there are a lot of people in need of food right now. Currently we are serving an average of 400 families each month with 15,000 pounds of food, including 80 new first-time families each month. There have been many people coming back for assistance that have not been to our pantry in years. Circumstances have changed and so have needs.

In August, US Airways conducted a food drive and collected 650 items to help replenish the shelves at our food pantry. These tiems assisted in feeding 130 families. Thanks to the family at US Airways for seeing a need and making an effort to fill that need.

Second Harvest Food Bank is one our main suppliers of food. But recently they have experienced a decline in donations. The federal and state budgets have been decreased which means food surplus is down. All this means that we have to find food by other means. Food drives is one of the ways that we acquire food to distribute. If you are interested in conducting a food drive, please call us at 336.744.4004.

Food Lion Charitable Foundation has awarded a $5000 grant to Agape Care & Share, Inc. The Food Lion Charitable Foundation, founded in 2001, provides financial support for programs and organizations dedicated to feeding the hungry in the communities it serves. This couldn’t have come at a better time. Just last week, our shelves were nearly empty. This is the third year that FLCF has come to our aid. Please thank our local Food Lion store manager at Patterson Ave. for their support. As you can see, it takes the whole community to care for those in need. We serve nearly 400 families each month with up to 15,000 pounds of food. Contributions and grants play a major part in the work that is done at Agape Care & Share. Thanks for your partnership Food Lion Charitable Foundation.

Someone once said “All you really want is for someone to say ‘I know how you feel’”.  Isn’t that the truth? You just really want to feel like someone really “gets it”, knows what you may be feeling, or share your joy/sympathize in your heartache. No one wants to feel like they’re the only one or that they’re alone!

It’s the same with people dealing with homelessness, poverty, or lack. Though you may never have been homeless or poverty, you most likely can understand how scary it is to lose a job or have an unexpected bill that you can’t pay right away! The “now what”, followed by a million thoughts, maybe some dread or despair before you find a solution or someone lends a hand. 

The next time you are talking with someone who is going through something, even if you can’t help solve their problem, you will make a huge difference with those powerful words, “I know how you feel!”. 

Wells Fargo has a program called Sharing Advantage. When an individual applies for a loan, they are given an opportunity to desginate a donation to a local non-profit. Recently a couple getting a new home applied and choose Agape Care & Share to receive the donation. How awesome is that? They got a blessing of a loan for a new home and shared their blessing by giving to Agape Care & Share as well. Wells Fargo has pledged to strengthen local communities and this program is one of the ways in which they fulfill that committment. Thank you Wells Fargo for helping to better the community.

During the month of May, Dollar General locally ran food drives for various organizations. We were the recipients of one of the food drives and received 183 items of food. This will assist in providing food for nearly forty families. Thank you Dollar General for your support of the community.

We also received 393 items of food from a food drive conducted by East Forsyth Middle School. This will help provide food to nearly 80 families. Thank you East Forsyth Middle for helping fight hunger in the community.

Hunger continues to be a concern to our neighbors. There are families that have experienced loss of employment and are finding it hard to pay bills and buy food for the family. That is what local food pantries are all about, helping fight that battle with our friends and neighbors. You can help too by conducting a food drive in your sphere of influence. Please contact our office at 336.744.4004 to set up a time that is convenient to you. And thanks in advance for caring and sharing.

Change Your Perspective

Hopelessness…a very real, raw emotion that anyone facing an insurmountable problem has felt! For those facing homelessness, job loss, trying to pay bills and feed themselves and their family, they may deal with this feeling everyday. 

What can you and I do to help them see there is hope again? Certainly helping with food and clothing is a start, but it has to go deeper than that to really help them change their perspective about their situation. We may need to invest time with them-sharing times we’ve struggled in some area and how we made it through it; learning about their strengths and how to focus on those and the positives in their lives-maybe even to help them see there IS a positive in there somewhere! 

Once they work from hopelessness to seeing even just a glimmer of hope, their perspective changes and THAT is when true change can begin! 

Spring is in the air and, of course, minds are filled with thoughts of love and caring toward others, with hearts and flowers everywhere you look. However, there is much more to showing true Agape love, no flowers required.

While there is more to this type of love, showing it is really quite simple:  It is about opening your heart and your mind to meet a need in the way that YOU can help to meet that need. Can you give money, time, food, clothing? Great! Can you give a smile or hug to someone hurting? Great! You get the idea – the possibilities are endless.

Showing true compassionate love to those in need can mean more to them than any flowers or temporary things ever could. What we do, as individuals and when we join together in community, lasts so much longer than a day or month in the hearts of those we have touched.

On April 17 a new class will begin called Tell Them I Love Them. In this class, we will learn what the true meaning of LOVE is. How do you show love to someone else when you don’t even love yourself? Let’s find out the answer to this question and so many more. The class will meet on Tuesday’s from 10am to 11:30am beginning on April 17 and continuing through June 5. Don’t forget that all classes are held in our Triad Dream Center in Suite J. We look forward to seeing you there.