Southeast Gwinnett Cooperative Ministry

The Southeast Gwinnett Cooperative Ministry is a grassroots effort that acts as the benevolent arm of the local church.   Over 30 churches come together to form the foundation of the Co-op, with supoort that filters out into the community through businesses, individuals, organizations, and schools.

The primary focus of the Co-op is providing food security to 300-400 families each month.  The food offered is customized to family size and children’s ages.  Basic staples, as well as precious extras, are offered to each family that comes seeking assistance.

In addition to food assistance, the Co-op offers financial support of in the form of utility and prescription medication assistance.  The aim of the utility assistance is to prevent disconnection of service which accumulates additional fees and deposits at the time of restoration, putting the families in further in arrears.  Prescription assistance is vital to the health of those who cannot afford their medications. 

The SE Co-op currently offers two seasonal programs that benefit children in our community.  The Summer Manna Project delivers daily lunches to at risk children during the summer months when school is not in session and therefore the “free and reduced” breakfast and lunch program is not available.  Launched in 2012, the Summer Manna Project has delivered 15,000 lunches to children in our community.  The Christmas Light Project gives parents the opportunity to shop for toys for their children for pennies on the dollar.  In addition, each child is provided with packages of socks and underwear.  By giving parents the opportunity to purchase gifts for their own children, we are actually offering a greater gift of infinite worth to these parents.  The gift of dignity, self esteem, and pride as they are allowed to fulfill their role as provider for their children.  We know that this in turn filters down to the children creating healthier families.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and
you who have no money, come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.

Isaiah
55:1-2

At the Co-op, we freely give what is good, while always pointing to what is best.  People come to us for physical sustenance, but are not always aware of an even greater yearning.  That which is true bread.  That which will truly satisfy.

We are blessed to be able to offer our clients a week’s worth of grocery items each month.  So, for 12 out of 52 weeks each year, the Co-op acts as a stop gap for hunger.  But what about the other 40 weeks?  Hunger is a chronic problem for all people.  What we eat today will not be able to keep us satisfied even tomorrow. 

But what about the deepest hunger of the soul?  So many more in our midst are starving for satisfaction.  And in some sense, those who have no means to satisfy their physical hunger become much more aware of the hunger of their souls.  In fact, God makes it clear in Isaiah 55 that these very people are being wooed towards that which truly satisfies. 

What a blessed privilege and responsibility the Co-op has been given.  Those whom God sends to us to physically satisfy, He also is asking us to spiritually quicken.  Our labors at the Co-op are a perfect picture of Christ’s labor for us.  Yes, we can give grocery items for free, but only because someone else has already paid the price at the store and then donated the item to the Co-op.  Likewise, Christ paid the price for our sin on the cross when He gave us the gift of redemption and forgiveness.  We can only come empty handed to the Lord and receive from His hand.  We possess nothing of value with which to barter with. Nothing we have, the Lord is in need of.  He knows this about us, yet He beckons us to “Come”!  Just as we at the Co-op know that those who line up outside our doors in anticipation of receiving grocery items have no means to pay.  Yet we beckon them to “Come! Come!"