East Orlando Food Pantry Needs

Ok, everyone… Here we go! 3.5 million people filed for unemployment last week. This reality showed at our food pantry this week.

Because of the growing need, we served 115 families at our food pantry and 150 kids came to get breakfast and lunch. The need for food is growing as the word is getting out.

We need your support today!!!

We need food donations and we need financial donations to see this happen. Please give and encourage others to give. Faith UMC in East Orlando has become a center for food relief for families across east Orlando.

TO DONATE CLICK ON THE DONATE BUTTON BELOW

Remember, all donations dedicated to our food pantry will go directly to the purchase, handling, and distribution of the food in East Orlando.

As more and more schools, businesses and government facilities are closing due to COVID-19, more and more families are looking for food solutions.

We had secured a partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank that has helped facilitate food distribution in East Orlando. However, as the need grows, we need your support more than ever.

Visit our services page for more information about free services provided to East Orlando.

Thanks to all the families that are helping out, and to all our incredible volunteers that are making a difference in the lives of so many.

Please, pray that God continues to provide, that more and more food donations come in, and that we continue to supply the needs of our community as we keep everyone safe, healthy and happy.

Blessings!

Matt Findley,

MT25 Board of Directors.

Ready to feed – 2018 Kitchen remodel completed

Hello all,

Faith’s kitchen is finally operational!! The Matthew 25 Project provided some financial support and volunteers to make it happen. 

Thanks to all our volunteers and workers for making this dream a reality. The kitchen will be use to help several feeding programs, including: Hungry Friday (Downtown Orlando’s Coalition for the Homeless) and Faith UMC’s Union Park Thursday service.

The kitchen during the construction process:

Old cabinets out!
New cabinets and floors!

The final product!!:

New floors, windows, cabinets and appliances!

The kitchen is ready to go!

One more time, thanks to all our volunteers that made this dream a reality!!

Free coats and blankets for the least of these!

The recent weather had been a struggle for families all over the east coast and mid-west. Freeze warnings are in place from the new England states to Florida.

With temperatures changing so fast, and dropping so low, it is hard to imagine what homeless people can do to stay warm this winter.

But thank God for the generous people at Faith UMC in Orlando, that donated a bunch of blankets and coats, and gathered around East Orlando to pass them to homeless people this past weekend!!

Please, pray that our brothers and sisters that are homeless can stay warm this winter!

The Matthew 25 Project is committed to continue to help neighbors and communities in east Orlando, and our presence, reputation and history continues to grow as we expand our reach to those that are in need.

Our thanks to all the volunteers that made this event a reality!!

Turkeys distribution 2017!

Last Saturday the Matthew 25 gave away 160 meals to families in East Orlando!! We are very thankful to all our donors, and partners that made this event a reality!

Food ready for distribution:

Volunteers ready to go out to the community:

Thanks to all who worked so hard on Saturday.

 

Breaking Poverty Cycles (Updated)

Breaking Poverty Cycles

For the record, I probably would not believe this story had I not been sitting in the room when it happened. I was volunteering with an organization that works with homeless youth when I saw firsthand how serious the implications of these statistic can be. A local bank was doing a seminar for the kids on how to open a bank account. The young woman giving the seminar was very nice and professional. She went through the very basics of how a bank account works and why they are helpful. When all of the sudden, one of the young men in the room interrupted her with a series of questions. He was shocked and appalled at her matter-of-fact-ness in suggesting it a good thing for him to allow someone else to take and store his money. He let her know that he was having none of her nonsense. He promptly let her know that the only way to keep money safe was to hide it. I have never witnessed disbelief like what was on her face that day. I have often wondered what happened to this young man. What hope does this young man have for the future? How will he ever be successful when something so small as a bank account is such an outlandish idea?

I pastor a small church in a neighborhood that is impacted heavily by poverty.

Within a mile circle of my church, there are hundreds of homeless, low income apartments, duplexes filled with single mothers, and a trailer park that was recently the focus of a major DEA sting operation. This trailer park borders the local Elementary School. Right next to one another exists poverty and promise. As I watch the children that bounce along the sidewalks as they make their way to and from school, I wonder about their future. So, I can sleep at night I tell myself that all of these kids will have the chance to break out of the poverty in which they find themselves. I tell myself the schools are teaching good financial habits. I tell myself this, even though I am aware that 45% of kids that spend more than half their childhood in poverty will be poor at age 35. My soul groans to think that half of these wonderful children are going to struggle financially. I really do not like to feel this way. So, most days I worry about the countless other things that pastors have to worry about and the kids often go unthought- of.

For young men like in the first story and for the kids bopping along the sidewalk in my church’s neighborhood, it will take a lot of effort in education and mentoring to reduce the likelihood of these children remaining in poverty. It is said by the National Adult Literacy Survey that three-fourths of all welfare/food stamp recipients perform at the lowest levels of literacy. Financial education or financial literacy is something these young people may never receive at home or in school. Kids in poverty cycles grow into a mindset that is simply focused on survival. Having money that makes money is a foreign concept for those struggling to pay the power bill. Things like portfolios and long-term investments quickly go by the wayside when the basics of survival are at risk.

There is hope for these young people though. We know that through proper financial education these young people can have the opportunity to curb the statistics that threaten to hold them in this never-ending poverty cycle. All over the world, people are working to see that poverty is less of a barrier for those in its grasps. Through things like meeting emergency needs, financial education, conflict resolution training, and creating access to resources, poverty is being alleviated. Worldwide there are people that are investing their time and resources into the wellbeing of these folks who would be otherwise stuck. For the kids of my neighborhood, it is going to take the sweat and hard work of some people that care to make a difference. I truly believe that if those willing can catch these young people early, we can make a difference. If we can help to foster in them good ethics and financial skills they might be better equipped as adults. If we can walk with them through their lives encouraging and building them up, then they may have a better chance to break free. This cannot happen without the intentional effort of neighbors caring about neighbors.

This website seeks to pool together some resources to make this job a little easier for those seeking to make a difference. It is a big job, but it is a necessary job. Nelson Mandela said, “While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.” There is freedom, it is available, but even the rich have no access to it until humans are not left to suffer. As a pastor who truly wants the best for all those who live in the neighborhood. I pray that the middle and upper-class folks that find themselves content, will begin to wake to the idea that if one is suffering, we all suffer. I pray that we all begin to see the bondage in which we find ourselves when our neighbors suffer. I pray that we find our way to being the body of Christ who redeems and restores even the overlooked.

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Rev. Matthew Findley, a contributor to this blog, is an Full-Time Local Pastor for the United Methodist Church in Florida. Matt holds a M.Div. from Asbury Theological Seminary and he is the senior Pastor at Faith UMC in Orlando, Florida. He is married and have two kids age 11 and 4. Faith UMC works with several organization locally to help eradicate poverty in low income communities in East Orlando.