Mission store opens to fuel children's food program
Mary Treash of Brazil has found her calling -- feeding hungry children in Clay County.
"We have to find a way to feed our kids," she said, while visiting The Brazil Times this week. "Children with hungry bellies cannot think in school."
Her calling has resulted in the Food for Thought backpack food for children ministry. Children take backpacks loaded with food home on Friday's so they will be well fed through the weekend.
Broom Tree Ministries has opened a non-profit store at 1520 White Rock Rd., just west of the Clay County Humane Society shelter. It will sell gently used clothing and new Bibles and supplies.
None of the clothing will cost more than $4, Treash said.
Net proceeds will be used to fund the backpack food program.
This burden to feed local children and the name of the store came to Treash at Family Worship Center in Brazil.
"I was in church and there was an outpouring of the Spirit," she said. "It was impressed on me that I was supposed to sweep the church. One lady said maybe I could just pretend to be sweeping but I knew that wasn't good enough. I went and got a broom and started sweeping the church."
"I said, 'Lord, did you really say this or was I dreaming?'" she recalled.
Treash and some of her friends were not convinced this was truly a directive from God. Then, one day, she was reading her Bible and read about the prophet Elijah being refreshed while sitting under a Broom Tree.
Treash said she had read that passage before but it never occurred to her that the tree was called a Broom Tree.
"I went on the Internet and found a picture of a Broom Tree!" she said with a note of triumph in her voice. Eventually, the church agreed that a backpack food program was needed. They called it Food for Thought.
"With our Food for Thought program, we are in four of the six local schools," Treash said. "We started in March with five children and now we serve 40 in four schools and are being asked to take on other children."
The four are East Side, Van Buren, Jackson Township and Staunton elementary schools. With the backpack program in place, a key part of the puzzle remained. How would money be raised to sustain the program?
A lady in the church came up with the idea of opening a store to finance the project. "I knew what we were going to call it," Treash said. "Broom Tree."
While the backpack program is managed by the church, the Broom Tree store will be operated by Treash and other people.
Plans are for the store to be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
"We've had a couple really special donors," Treash said. "VFW 1127 in Brazil and UAW in Greencastle have helped plus there have been many special individual donors and several smaller donors."
After Jan. 1, 2015 they will take donations of "good, clean, used clothing" from the public.
"We have to find a way to feed our kids," she said, while visiting The Brazil Times this week. "Children with hungry bellies cannot think in school."
Her calling has resulted in the Food for Thought backpack food for children ministry. Children take backpacks loaded with food home on Friday's so they will be well fed through the weekend.
Broom Tree Ministries has opened a non-profit store at 1520 White Rock Rd., just west of the Clay County Humane Society shelter. It will sell gently used clothing and new Bibles and supplies.
None of the clothing will cost more than $4, Treash said.
Net proceeds will be used to fund the backpack food program.
This burden to feed local children and the name of the store came to Treash at Family Worship Center in Brazil.
"I was in church and there was an outpouring of the Spirit," she said. "It was impressed on me that I was supposed to sweep the church. One lady said maybe I could just pretend to be sweeping but I knew that wasn't good enough. I went and got a broom and started sweeping the church."
"I said, 'Lord, did you really say this or was I dreaming?'" she recalled.
Treash and some of her friends were not convinced this was truly a directive from God. Then, one day, she was reading her Bible and read about the prophet Elijah being refreshed while sitting under a Broom Tree.
Treash said she had read that passage before but it never occurred to her that the tree was called a Broom Tree.
"I went on the Internet and found a picture of a Broom Tree!" she said with a note of triumph in her voice. Eventually, the church agreed that a backpack food program was needed. They called it Food for Thought.
"With our Food for Thought program, we are in four of the six local schools," Treash said. "We started in March with five children and now we serve 40 in four schools and are being asked to take on other children."
The four are East Side, Van Buren, Jackson Township and Staunton elementary schools. With the backpack program in place, a key part of the puzzle remained. How would money be raised to sustain the program?
A lady in the church came up with the idea of opening a store to finance the project. "I knew what we were going to call it," Treash said. "Broom Tree."
While the backpack program is managed by the church, the Broom Tree store will be operated by Treash and other people.
Plans are for the store to be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
"We've had a couple really special donors," Treash said. "VFW 1127 in Brazil and UAW in Greencastle have helped plus there have been many special individual donors and several smaller donors."
After Jan. 1, 2015 they will take donations of "good, clean, used clothing" from the public.
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