Carrie Kay, director of the Food Pantry at Life Center Church in Tacoma, has seen the need for food assistance grow since the onset of Covid. They provide groceries: vegetables, fruit, dairy, and protein to those in need, but it’s also a place that’s more than just food – they are offering hope.
Learn more about their food pantry, food bank, and clothing bank stocked and ready to help those in need across Pierce County HERE.
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Catch hope & encouragement with Erica on weekday mornings from 5:00 AM – 10:00 AM, and Sundays from 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Carrie:
We are very blessed and grateful for our volunteers or we would not be able to do this.
Erica:
Meet Carrie Kay, director of the Food Pantry at Life Center Church in Tacoma. God can take one room and do big things.
Carrie:
When Covid happened, it turned into a small pantry and then I started in September and we kind of grew because the need is obviously growing, but I got a hold of Food Lifeline and they have been supplying with so many opportunities to get free food. And then we have numbers growing of cars just pulling up on Mondays, 1:00-3:00, and they’re able to get a bag of groceries, vegetables, fruit, dairy. The produce is on and off, but we really do try to get some protein, meat, cheese, eggs. And then we also have a complex here on our property that have needs and we have a team that takes care of them. They bag up their food, bring it down to them, which is on our property. And then we have the tiny homes, which we’ve been feeding and helping for almost three years in December. So, many things, many things come out of that room.
Erica:
Every family that rolls up to receive free groceries is a story and has a story.
Carrie:
There’s a gentleman that had heart surgery and the glow that that couple, they’re older, don’t have very much, the car barely makes it through the line… We literally got to pray with them for his heart surgery, but then he showed up weeks later just thanking us, and it’s ongoing. The stories are ongoing. The biggest thing is the team will literally take a couple of minutes, because ,we have a line so we can’t take long, but we started adding on the bottom of this list, I do need it for Food Lifeline, a tally of how many people are we feeding, we added prayer requests. And I think my biggest praise is that there’s a gentleman here at church that takes all those prayer requests and then puts it on our master prayer request for the whole church to see. It’s just covering the whole basis of what the pantry is.
Erica:
And what puts the energy in Carrie’s tank so that she can continue to fill others with hope?
Carrie:
I feel like I’m on a treasure hunt looking for the free food. My best everyday “get up” is what do I get free that saves money for the church and is a win-win for everybody in this community. That really is the truth.
Erica:
Carrie Reserves two special words to describe the amazing people who give so generously of their time and their love at the Food Pantry.
Carrie:
Hidden Treasure. The volunteers are women, a few men that are retired, and they are truly getting more out of it than us giving. I mean, they get more out of it. Just seeing these people smiles. We didn’t just give them some tuna and a loaf of bread. I mean, they’re getting some really good things. They’re constantly saying, oh my gosh, this is awesome.
Erica:
They’re giving out more than food. They’re offering hope to their neighbors and word is getting out.
Carrie:
I just got another call this morning and I just swung by the tiny homes. They’re just saying, I’m new. I haven’t got my food stamps. Do you have anything? We’re just going to do as best we can. There’s 26 kids in there and they’re under 13.
Erica:
If you need a little help right now, all you got to do is reach out.
Carrie:
I think honestly, the love and compassion that Life Center has will be felt no matter where it is. A phone call, driving up, or even during the week, just walk in. I’ve been here 40 years. This has been my home church. This is where I found Jesus. And the biggest thing I did here for years was music. I get more out of seeing a one-on-one connection of what God is doing in this place. So yes, they will feel we’re not judging. We understand this can be a temporary thing. It could be long-term, but the thing I think that opened my eyes was to see that Tiny Homes is a mile or mile and a half from us, and they’re now starting to attend one of our campuses. We have three and we have a smaller one than the Life Center that you are familiar with on Central. The small one is over in the north end of Tacoma. We’re actually bringing a little bus over to the tiny homes and people are starting to come to Church. Life Center can be big and overwhelming, but the little church is where we kind of filtered some folks feeling like this is not a threat. I did a women’s event there, told the ladies, come on up to the sanctuary, take a peek. This isn’t scary. It’s not too big. We really do care and we’re here for you.
Erica:
A big thanks to Carrie and her amazing team of volunteers at Life Center’s Food Pantry for catching the spirit in Tacoma.
Carrie:
Thank you, Erica.
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