“They Never Gave Up on Me”

Robert has come a long way in the last year or so, and he’s only looking up from here.

“About a year ago, I hit rock bottom,” he says. “I was using all my money for drugs, so I decided it was time to get help.”

Homeless at the time, Robert sought assistance from a local social service agency, which connected him with addiction services — and a food pantry that hosts a weekly meal program.

“The food pantry folks, they never gave up on me,” he says. “They made sure I had a meal every day.”

Now, Robert is celebrating more than a year of sobriety. He recently got his commercial driver’s license and is working on finding stable housing.

And he keeps coming back to the pantry — not just for food, but to be a positive influence on other visitors who may need a little encouragement.

“Unless people see that there’s a way out, they can stay stagnant,” he says. “I hope to be that example of how there is a way out, so they know there’s hope.”

Your support does much more than merely provide food. It also helps give hope and light to people struggling with other issues. Thank you!

  • kurt

Kurt’s Corner (2023 Summer)

A couple of the stories in this summer edition of Connection make me smile, because they show how far we’ve come. There’s our founder, Frank Gerson, in the early 1970s with his Free Store [...]