When our founder, Amy Privitt, heard God telling her to “feed people”, she decided to begin a free Community Meal where volunteers would make the food and invite any and all to come share in the meal. By divine direction, Cup of Grace began renting the Spirit Lake Senior Center for our free, weekly meals back in January, 2017. It was the perfect locale for the Community Meal, right in the middle of Spirit Lake. It had a large dining room, enough to hold our first year’s average weekly attendance of 65 people.
Fast forward to today. Our average weekly attendance for 2019 was 97 people. Our highest attendance for one meal was 164. We are quickly outgrowing our current venue and are beginning to search for a new location. Please pray with us as we ask God to guide us in finding a new place for our Community Meal.
As part of our 10-year plan, we would eventually like to own or rent a building out of which we can administer all of our current programs and grow into the future. Our goal is to have one place that people can go to for assistance.
We currently have no “home”. Our office is a spare room in Amy’s house, although we usually end up holding our meetings at Brickel Creek Coffee. We rent two storage units that house our clothes for the schools, food, and fundraising items. We have our weekly Community Meal at the Senior Center. A storage trailer parked next to the Senior Center holds our supplies for the meals. It gets a little dicey in the winter with the snow piled around it, but we call it an adventure. While it’s a bit of a gypsy life, we manage.
Our “dream building” would have a large kitchen and dining area, at least one office, and storage space for all of our clothes, food, office supplies and fundraising equipment/materials. A bonus would be an extra room for training classes and guest speakers, and perhaps enough square footage for a for-profit thrift store.
Our idea is that the proceeds from the thrift store would help finance our programs. While it would primarily be run by volunteers, it could also provide an opportunity for those who need to develop employable skills to work and learn alongside us.
Our dream is to be able to offer:
- A meal to anyone who needs it, anytime we are open
- Clothes for people in crisis
- Classes on resume writing, interview skills, life skills, and more
- Guest speakers on topics of interest to the community, such as teen suicide and addiction recovery
- Vouchers for medical, dental and eye care appointments
We ask that you join us in praying for God to provide us what we need to go forward in our mission. We follow where He leads, and we are constantly looking for where He is working in our community. If God wants us to have our own home, He will provide. Until then, here’s to gypsy life!
By Tamara Wheeler