New service vehicle will keep Harvest Outreach’s mission rolling forward

HANNIBAL, Mo. — A new service vehicle will help Harvest Outreach fulfill its mission in Northeast Missouri.  Harvest Outreach will display the new vehicle at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 30, at 1006 Lyon Street.

The vehicle, a 2012 Chevy pickup truck, replaces a 1993 Ford pickup truck. Harvest Outreach utilizes a truck daily for its food programs, including Loaves and Fishes and Feed America, as well as food delivery to homebound individuals.

In a press release, Pastor James Bridges with Harvest Outreach Ministries said, “Transportation is something that is easily taken for granted until you no longer have access to it. Having a reliable vehicle will profoundly impact Harvest Outreach.”

Harvest Outreach in Hannibal is the only sober living facility of its kind within a 100-mile radius. It offers a faith-based approach to recovery, lifelong sobriety and good mental health while also meeting the physical and social needs for people transitioning out of their old life of dependency and into their new life of hope and purpose.

The truck was purchased with the help of a matching grant offered through an anonymous donor-advised fund with the Community Foundation Serving West Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri. To receive the matching grant, Harvest Outreach worked to raise $15,000 from local supporters. The funds were used to buy the truck and provide related expenses and future maintenance.

“Our mission is ‘connecting people who care with causes that matter,’ and that comes to life in many ways,” Community Foundation CEO Catherine Meckes said. “When we learned of Harvest Outreach’s growing need, we thought of a donor whose charitable interests aligned with the request. We are pleased to help facilitate these connections, help donors fulfill their goals and grow the work of our nonprofit partners.”

Approximately 1,000 meals are distributed monthly through the Loaves and Fishes program. Between 25 and 50 families receive food boxes each week through the Feed America Program.

“We are grateful to the Community Foundation and the anonymous donor who stepped forward to assist us in purchasing a new service vehicle,” Bridges said. “This grant and the Community Foundation have proven to be a true blessing to the organization.”

Harvest Outreach Ministries started as God’s Harvesters in 2011. God’s Harvesters was founded in 1975 because Brother Edwin Taylor had a burden to preach the gospel to men and women who were incarcerated. Taylor began prison ministry with his wife, Rev. Lindell Shumake and other volunteers at the old Marion County Jail in Palmyra, Mo. It was not too long after it began they expanded to other prisons and county jails in the state of Missouri.

The Community Foundation has made more than $13 million in grants since 1997. It serves 12 counties: Adams, Brown, Hancock and Pike in Illinois and Clark, Lewis, Marion, Ralls, Pike, Knox, Shelby and Monroe in Missouri. 

For more information, call 217-222-1237, email info@mycommunityfoundation.org or go to mycommunityfoundation.org or www.facebook.com/mycommunityfoundation.