Liberty Baptist Church in Fort Oglethorpe helping those in need with “Hope for the Hungry” program
Those in need have a friend in Liberty Baptist Church of Fort Oglethorpe. The church tries to battle the community’s hunger issue with its “Hope for the Hungry” program.
According to Pastor Ryan Ralston, the program offers a gift box of non-perishable food to families in the community every second Thursday of each month in an attempt to keep people from going hungry.
“They (families) come in, fill out a little form, and then we take them back for a little bit of counseling about whatever it is they’re going through,” Ralston said. “We give them a box of food and can even take it out to their vehicles for them if needed.”
Ralston says the boxes include a variety of items.
“Peanut butter, juice boxes, rice, beans ... mostly non-perishable stuff that will last a long time for them and won’t go bad,” Ralston said. “We want to try to help them get by for a few days. It’s based on enough for a family of four.”
The event is held every second Thursday of the month from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the church, which is located near the entrance to historic Barnhardt Circle.
“We probably average about 16-17 families each month that come on that Thursday, and then we probably have 4-5 more families that might come to us during the month,” Ralston said. “They’ll knock on our door and need a little help, so we try to help them out as much as possible.”
Ralston says the church members are just doing their duty to make sure local families don’t go hungry.
“Since we’re a Christian organization, we mostly want to meet a need,” Ralston said. “We also want to talk to them about the Lord a little bit. We’re very servant focused, we want to love people. I tell our campus all the time, if something ever happened to us, we want them to miss us. We do everything with a smile on our face, and try to love and help this community try to be revived and give people hope. We want to give people food to sustain them and give them hope that they can get out of the position they’re in.”
Ralston says the church also wants to start a separate mission to focused on toiletries, so people in need can clean up and look their best before going on job interviews and things.
“We can hopefully launch and provide that resource beginning in April,” he said. “We’ve been taking up toiletries for the past month and a half getting ready for that. We’re hoping to maybe in the future also be able to provide clothing for people going on their interviews.”
Ralston hopes that those in need won’t hesitate in visiting the church to get some assistance.
“All of us want to have hope, and sometimes to have hope, we have to ask for help,” Ralston said. “We all want to have peace, have our needs met, and sometimes having a need met means reaching out and asking for help from someone else. One thing I can assure people of is that they will not be judged when they come here. Everything here we keep as anonymous and as private as possible. We’re not out to tell anyone what they need to do, we’re just here to serve them.”
Anyone looking to donate to the new toiletry ministry can do so by calling the church or contacting them through their website libertybaptistchurch. ws.