Washington County Enterprise-Leader
GRACE Place Still Feeds Hungry
LINCOLN — GRACE Place has closed its thrift store temporarily because of the covid-19 outbreak but volunteers are still there to hand out food three times a week for those in need.
Wanda Biggs said GRACE Place has not had many people dropping by for food lately and she wants to make sure residents know their services are still available.
People are asked to park and call the office phone number, which is posted on the building. Volunteers then will bring out boxes of food, with the amount depending on the number of people in the family, to a table placed outside the front door.
The office is located at 116 W. Park St., just off Lincoln Square. Hours are 6-8 p.m. Tuesdays, 9 a.m. to noon Thursdays and 9 a.m. noon on Saturdays.
Lee Munyon, a volunteer on Thursdays, said the nonprofit organization has been blessed and has food to hand out to people.
GRACE Place purchases food from NWA Food Bank. Harps Store in Lincoln donates food to the organization and a local family
donates fresh eggs from their chickens. Milk comes from Hiland Dairy. Many others are donating money to purchase food.
“Harps has been a wonderful help to us,” Munyon said. “They are such a blessing to us.”
For now, the organization is not requiring people to provide any information about their income to show a need.
“We ask they come once a month but if they have a need, they can come more often,” Biggs said. “We can’t have children hungry and with all that’s going on now, I know some people may need help more often.”
Boxes of food include meat, bread, fresh produce when available, canned goods and Little Debbie cakes.
Joeann Welch of Lincoln is volunteering her time organizing the food during the week. Welch, who is 85 years old and considered in the high-risk group for covid-19, said she is not nervous about helping at GRACE Place building.
Welch said when it’s her time to go, she’ll go. Referring to God, she added, “He’s going to take me some day.”
Volunteers include members of First Baptist Church of Lincoln on Tuesdays, a regular Thursday volunteer group, and then on Saturdays, local churches come in once a month to help out.
Others come in throughout the week to unload trucks, pick up food at the Food Bank and put up food.
GRACE Place moved into a new welcome center about six months ago that provides more space in the waiting room and more rooms for counselors to meet with patrons and pray with them.
Biggs serves as one of the counselors. She’s not able to counsel anyone inside the building because of the pandemic but said she is praying with individuals and families as they pick up their boxes of food.
GRACE Place is a ministry started in 1988 and supported by 15 area churches. The acronym GRACE stands for Groceries, Resources And Clothing for Encouragement. The ministry focuses on sharing about God and meeting needs of those in the area.