2022-100-Faces-Book - Flipbook - Page 63
Anne
Executive director. Social worker. Grandmother.
Think of any resource a family might need, and ARK
has probably provided it at some point.
Although Cheatham County is small in population, it’s
a long county geographically—running from north to
south, divided by the Cumberland River. It can be hard
for families on the southern end to get to the north part
of the county where a lot of the helping agencies are
such as the food bank and the Department of
Human Services.
That’s why a small group from Kingston Springs
United Methodist decided to start a food bank in south
Cheatham County.
“Some of these people were driving 20, 30 miles and
when they have to drive, you know, they don’t have
money for food. They certainly don’t have money for
gas. So, we got started and it has just grown.”
They’ve since started a retail store, grown their food
bank and are able to help individuals and families with
utility bills.
“Anything in our resale store, we can also just give to
folks who need it. We work closely with the schools
and their needs. And, we just have a very connecting
kind of service and because we cannot do it by
ourselves, we partner locally with a lot of the churches
and the schools, and then we have our bigger partners
too that are outside Cheatham County.”
She says one of their most recent calls was a child
in a local elementary school who was wearing shoes
that were three sizes too small—and ARK was able to
quickly get them a new pair of shoes.
“Those are little things, but they really mean a lot to the
student who is experiencing it and to the teacher who
has observed it. So, that’s some of the little ways we
can help a family. Our county is small, but the need
is great.”
Since COVID hit, she says they’ve seen the biggest
increase in people needing food.
“A lot of those were new people, folks we had never
seen before, and that made us glad that they felt like
they could come to us when they needed help, to keep
themselves afloat through COVID. But it hurt our souls
to know that there were so many people out there
hurting that had not really hit bottom before … like they
have this year.”
ARK Community Resource Center
