Basic Needs Ministry - Services and Service Area

  2. Program 2 - Free food

Basic Needs Ministry has a limited primary service area. It is to serve the 119,000 residents of Garner, Clayton, Cleveland Township, Angier, Fuquay-Varina, Willow Springs, and Wilson's Mills. This small 10-mile circle around the 40/42 intersection has 7,200 children/8,000 households identified as in financial need. All other areas are served as special projects.

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Our service area has 30 schools feeding low income children free and reduced lunches and another 30 food pantries providing free food for the home table. Each municipality has a source to assist with the unpaid utilities. In our service area, we are the only clothing closet prepared to provide free and reduced price clothing to the numbers of local people in need, with 28,000 garments sorted and hung by category and size.

A pound of food, whether collards or steak, can be purchased and provided for $.14. Any particular garment in a particular size is harder to come by and may cost a great deal more. Unwanted clothing in any household is a great financial resource to the community and its families, when collected and redistributed. The shirt that is to be sold on the international clothing market may bring $.03 to a local church, but the same shirt provided free to a neighbor in need may save him $35.00 and gain the donor a tax savings!

Basic Needs Ministry has no paid staff. Everyone is a volunteer and works after their regular jobs and every weekend, sometimes holidays and vacations. By permitting nearly 300 community concerned organizations in the service area to give free clothing "gift certificates" to those in need, there is no need for anyone to take off work, miss a day of school, or drive a long distance to "qualify for assistance." By being open to the public in the evenings and the 9-hour Saturdays most clients can be served at a convenient time. Having the largest selection of clothing available when a client walks in, almost guarantees satisfaction in one trip. By taking the time to sort and display clothing by both category and size, a busy mother or Social Service Counselor can get in, make a selection, and be on the way fairly fast. Having a carpeted dressing room with mirrors ensures those who take the time to try clothing on that their clothing will fit at home and not require returns and exchanges. Local residents looking for a bargain can enjoy shopping the organized aisles.

Service Area Needs

Some needs are long term, some are short, some are avoidable, but they are the needs of our families. Here are some situations, where Basic Needs Ministry was able to provide assistance. Together we can make a difference in peoples' lives.

  • Children in poverty - Our children are trying to grow up and learn in a situation, which they did not create. Children eligible for free or reduced price lunches - over 7,200 recognized in our service area by the Wake and Johnston schools
  • Unemployed - Whether unable to hold a job or the company closed up and the job disappeared, we have folks needing food, clothing, and medical care in our community.
  • Underemployed - Our community businesses pay wages as low as $2.13 an hour.
  • Newly re-employed - After trying to live on unemployment income, how can our neighbors afford a new wardrobe for an entirely different career?
  • Foster families - Knock, knock. Here's your new child and she may have some clothes on her back.
  • Disabled - We have disabled, who are the sole working member of their family and who may not yet have qualified for any assistance. Many disabled cannot work any job full time.
  • Fire victims - Yesterday they had a home and food and clothing. Today they need everything. Not all could afford insurance and not all can wait until insurance is paid.
  • Homeless - Beside the usual image of our invisible neighbors, what else can you call a family moving from state to state to find work, who does not yet have or can afford the deposits to get a place to stay?
  • Handicapped - Whether mental or physical, these folks are often not able to find work with average wages and benefits. They may frequently require extensive and expensive training and physicians' visits, which drain family finances.
  • Single parent families - How can you care for yourself and the children, when your wage earning partner dies suddenly or runs away with your best friend? Whether it's an abandoned, abused, or deceased spouse - there are frequently hard choices to face with a lot less cash flow.
  • Orphans - Is the community ready to provide total care for the children when mom and dad are killed in a car accident, by a stalker, or overdose on drugs?
  • Transitional families -The family can experience a major sense of loss, both practical and emotional, with the loss of income destabilizing a family and leading to homelessness.
  • Migrant farm workers - Our farmer's need the help, but don't provide protective clothing from pesticide and other chemicals.
  • Military families - Many active duty guard families are deeply hurt financially when the primary employer does not ensure a continuing income to the family during call-up periods. The kids don't stop growing during the year or multi-year tour.
  • Flood victims - If there is enough house left to notch the doorway to mark the high water mark, the entire contents may be destroyed and most families will not have full insurance coverage.
  • Senior citizens - There is often a need for warm clothes to get through the winter for those without family support and many other needs year round.
  • Businessmen - Not all businesses are immediately successful and yet the owners must pay their employees' salaries, before the owner's families can eat and get clothing.

A Typical Call - Single mother, three children

I need assistance. I have contacted many of the local organizations, my church and many government agencies at this time with no luck in finding immediate assistance.

I am a single mother with 3 children 14, 12 and 5. Last year my husband took off and I have struggled since to make ends meet. I have been working through temporary agencies until I obtain a permanent job. About 3 weeks ago my car – the one my ex left me with in not such great shape- broke down and I had to use my rent money to pay for it to get fixed. It still is not fixed so I had to get a rental car to get to work and to get the kids to school. Now I am without a vehicle.

Today is the 1st of the month again and rent is due and I have not money for rent.

I am now faced with an eviction notice and have fallen so far behind and can not seem to catch up. I have been looking for a part time job on the weekends to help catch up while working a full time job with a staffing agency paying $11 per hour with hopefully a permanent position offered in the next month making a little more money.

Can you provide me with any rental assistance to keep my children in our apartment and off of the streets or in a shelter? I have asked my family who all live in California, I am alone here, for assistance however they can not help at this time. At this point another major change for them would not be good for them or me. If you can not help me can you tell me perhaps where I can get some assistance. I am a woman veteran and am trying to contact the veteran affairs also.