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Jan 25, 2013 | Jamie Martin-Currie

Commentary: Local Outreach Effort Needs a Partner for Good

shear blessings 5
KariAnn passes groceries to a teacher from Blackshear

You never know the power of a smile (or the church logo on your shirt.) The greeter at the Breakfast Klub, 63-year-old Mary Jackson, noticed the Holy Spirit Episcopal Church (HSEC) logo on KariAnn Lessner’s shirt and struck up a conversation about the church in Houston’s Memorial area and why we were in this part of town.  We explained that we stopped at her restaurant after visiting nearby Blackshear Elementary and the vital ministry Holy Spirit is providing children there.

 

Mary shared with us over catfish, laughter, grits and wings, that she had attended Blackshear Elementary, and we explained that we had just come from the school where we dropped off 200 weekend meals for students – just another connection made in the midst of giving.

 

A year ago, HSEC member Melissa Peter was just beginning to grapple with the concept of “food desert.”  The tiny powerhouse, with a can do attitude, and a heart of pure gold, rose to the challenge to meet the need of urban children in the heart of her city. With the help of HSEC and others, Peter started Shear Blessings, a program that originally provided 50 of the highest need students with a backpack’s worth of food for the weekend. In just a few months, that number doubled to 100 students.

 

USDA research suggests ”food deserts exist in urban areas if the consumer residents are 1 mile from the nearest supermarket.” The only store in the Blackshear’s neighborhood of Houston’s Third Ward, could be any corner store in a third world country. The produce section, directly across the aisle from the sodas, was a third of the sized of the beverage row.  When you consider that a gallon of milk costs $4.59 you would have to weigh, as a parent living in this community, the need vs. your ability to provide.

 

When Melissa’s sister-in-law, Suzie Spencer (staff member at Good Shepherd, Friendswood) asked her to speak about Shear Blessings during their stewardship drive, she had no idea what would come from her humble offering.  Janice Warwick, a member at Good Shepherd went home and nominated Shear Blessings for Walmart’s 12 Days of Giving, a Christmastime charity contest. Twenty thousand organizations were nominated, but Janice’s nomination was one of the 140 chosen to received grant monies from the Walmart Foundation.

 

Since Walmart’s $10,000 gift, the program has doubled the amount of children they can serve. Of the 426 students at Blackshear, 200 receive weekend meals to take home every Friday. Area churches donate most of the food.  Memorial Drive United Methodist Church even provides the transportation of the food along with James Borello as the driver. He also doubles as the “man power” on Fridays too.

 

The students at Holy Spirit Episcopal School assemble the weekend meal bags and pray for the children at Blackshear Elementary.  This week, kindergartener Ethan Zuklic offered this blessing over the food, “Come Lord Jesus be our guest, let these gifts to us be blessed.” Amen.

 

At Blackshear, 98 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunches. Shear Blessings has made a huge impact on half of these students, but wouldn’t it be great if another church would partner with HSEC to provide for the remaining 200 students?

 

If you’d like to get involved email KariAnn Lessner, Holy Spirit’s director of children and family ministries. Or visit Shear Blessings' Facebook Page.