Among major changes at Sweet Home Emergency Ministries, the organization has a new executive director, president and location.
Pastor Gary Englert of Sweet Home Evangelical Church is the new president of the SHEM Board of Directors. He succeeds Dick Hill, who retired as pastor at Hillside Fellowship. Sharon King is the new director, succeeding Peggy Blair. The entire operation is moving out the back door of its Long Street location into the former Hometown Drugs on Main Street on a one-year lease with an option to buy.
SHEM provides food boxes and clothing to families in need.
SHEM will officially open in its new location on Sept. 1, King said. It will be closed on Aug. 29 for the move.
The organization is going from 1,400 square feet to 5,000 square feet, she said. Among the issues faced by SHEM is a lack of space, and it can get frustratingly hot when four or five people are in the reception area.
As far as comfort, she said, the new location is going to be a big improvement.
“One of our goals is to preserve the dignity of those coming in to ask for assistance,” King said.
It can be difficult to ask for help, she said. When you walk in and see peeling paint and a hot, cramped reception area, “it does nothing to bring you up.”
The new building also has office space, said Bob Hartsock, chairman of the relocation committee. Habitat for Humanity will use one office space, and two offices remain available for other organizations to help better serve the community.
“We need to be on Main Street, close to where people are,” he said, and to help with local efforts to improve the downtown area, SHEM is working on ideas for the street front.
“Our front window is going to be as attractive as anything else on Main Street,” he said.
SHEM is working out different fund-raising plans.
After leasing the building for a year, SHEM will have the option to buy, Hartsock said. At that point, SHEM will have to pay $50,000 on the property.
So far, the organization has $24,000 set aside for the building, he said.
A year ago from December, an anonymous donor gave SHEM $5,000 for relocation, Hartsock said. After that, SHEM set up a relocation committee and relocation fund.
The same donor offered another $5,000, Hartsock said, but it needed a match, within three days as he understood it.
Blair started calling regular donors, and within three days, SHEM raised $8,000 as a match, Hartsock said.
“It just reflects the fact that when we’ve needed it, this community has stepped up for SHEM.”
He has no doubt the community will come through for a faith-based organization, like SHEM, which feeds more than 1,000 people per month, Hartsock said.
Right now, SHEM is providing 310 boxes a month to Sweet Home families, up slightly from last summer, King said. Those boxes go to families of one or two on up to multigenerational families of eight or nine living together to cut down on expenses.
“With the economy the way it is, it is really difficult for separate households to make it,” she said.
Many clients have jobs and steady income, she said. They may have 20 years at their job, but it’s just not enough to make it.
SHEM helps them stretch their dollars a little further and keeps them above water a little longer, she said.