Heartland Hope Mission received $55,000 in grant money from the United Way of the Midlands.
Chelsea Salifou, Executive Director for Heartland Hope Mission, says $50,000 of the funding will go toward their hunger and homelessness prevention programs.
Salifou says they will use the money to purchase food for their food pantry and to help fund a driver who will pick up food.
She says some of the money will help offset the cost of the truck. Salifou says they anticipate serving well over 34,000 people this year.
Heartland Hope Mission focuses on serving the working poor.
"Most of our families are employed but just struggle to make ends meet or they’ve just lost a job. So what we do when they come in is have them meet one-on-one with a client service specialist who looks at their situation and our goal is to connect them with the resources they need to first of all prevent them from becoming homeless and then secondarily, help them rebuild self-sufficiency.”
Salifou says the mission has employers on site that do live interviews and has jobs board that are updated weekly.
She says each person that comes in can choose clothing, hygiene and food items for free. When individuals come into the pantry, they can choose from canned and boxed goods as well as frozen meat, fresh produce and bread.
The remaining $5,000 in grant money will be used toward the Mission’s Jobs Paths program.
For more information, the website is HeartlandHopeMission.org.