Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
‘Let’s bless this community’
Chamber names LIFE Ministries as featured organization
PRAIRIE GROVE — The Prairie Grove Chamber of Commerce showcased LIFE Ministries as its first featured community organization during the March meeting held at Prairie Grove Christian Church.
Taryn Golden, chamber president, said the chamber is featuring local organizations because it is important to know what’s going on in the community.
LIFE Ministries (Linking Individuals For Essentials) is an all-volunteer, faith-based, nonprofit organization that provides assistance to families and individuals living in western and southern Washington County.
While it is supported by many churches, LIFE Ministries is a separate entity from the churches and has its own board of directors that oversees the organization.
The ministry operates a resale store in one half of its building on Stills Road. Proceeds from the thrift store are used to help provide assistance for those in need, which includes food, clothing, and help with utility costs and prescription drugs. People seeking help meet and interview with volunteers in the other half of the building.
For 2022, 4,170 food boxes went out the door to help families in western and southern Washington County, according to Richard Henderson, who has volunteered as the food pantry manager for six years. Henderson has been a LIFE Ministries volunteer for about 10 years.
Henderson said the organization purchases food from the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank and picks up food every Monday. He has about nine volunteers who help unload the food and sort it in the pantry.
If the organization had paid retail for its food in 2022, the cost would have been about $165,000, Henderson said. LIFE Ministries is able to purchase food at 70% of the retail costs.
Participation has definitely increased since the pandemic, Henderson said. Prior to the covid-19 pandemic, about 30 to 40 food boxes would be handed out on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Now, around 160 boxes are going out the door.
LIFE Ministries provides free food boxes to senior adults 65 or older on the fourth Saturday of the month and 150 to 175 seniors are driving through to pick up these boxes. They’ve helped as many as 300 during the two-hour span, Henderson said.
Cindy Dobbs, who chairs the group’s board of directors, said the ministry spent about $116,000 for assistance in 2022. Of this, about $80,000 was for food costs, and the rest was to help people with utility and prescription costs.
Dobbs said the resale store is bringing in more revenue than it ever has.
“We have the best price in the area,” Dobbs said, adding that donations to the store are sorted three times to make sure everything is quality merchandise.
She said the ministry used to celebrate if it made $300 on a Saturday. Now, the store is having Saturday sales of $1,500-$2,000 each week and around $1,000 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The resale store has done this without raising its prices, she said.
“We have not gone up in price. We do not want to do that to the people. We feel it’s given to us. God has blessed us. Let’s bless the community,” Dobbs said.
Along with the resale store and providing assistance, LIFE Ministries also gives six $500 scholarships each year to Farmington, Prairie Grove and Lincoln graduates. The scholarships are based on the students’ volunteer services.
The group provides free firewood to help with heating costs for those who have wood-burning fireplaces.
The ministry also helps when school counselors contact the group about students who have specific needs or when a family has needs because their house burned down, Dobbs said.
“We let them go in and look and see what they can use [free of charge],” Dobbs said. “You are going to have your pride and dignity when you come to see us because you are going to have the benefit to go in that store and shop like anybody else.”