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Faith-Based and Community Blog
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2008.03.01 |
2008.01.01 |
2007.09.01 |
2007.08.01 |
2007.07.01 |
2007.05.01 |
2007.03.01 |
2007.02.01 |
2006.11.01 |
2006.10.01 |
2006.07.01
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Monday, March 17, 2008
Dear Humanitarians and Concerned Citizens,
There has never been any doubt that Faith Based Charities make up over 90% of food pantries and soup kitchens that feed the
hungry of our society. Why is it that our Government and major food banks make it so difficult for Faith Based Charities to
do what they do best, helping the less fortunate of our society? Faith Based Food pantries just want to
volunteer to help others in our society, why not leave them alone to serve their communities? They are not going around forcing
anyone to Pray or go to church; they only want to help people. This new directive from a major food
bank has some food pantries ready to close their doors to the many hungry families that they serve. Quote
"The following information acts as an amendment to your current
agreement with ----- food bank and should be added to your file containing your agreement with us." "As
a member of --------- food bank, you may not ask anyone to participate in any type of Religious dialogue. This includes no
Praying in front of clients, no putting literature into client’s assistance boxes, requiring them to attend services,
counseling or any other act that reapers to religion. This rule applies to Second Harvest Product as well as U.S.D.A."
FAITH BASED INITIATIVE
What is our Government thinking about? They
have thousands of people that want to volunteer to make our Country a better place for all its citizens and it seems like
our Government wants to do is discourage all this free labor and make life more difficult for the needy.
In Florida
we are having problems with the Department of Agriculture, which handles U.S.D.A. Commodity program for our Federal Government.
The contracts for U.S.D.A. Commodities were given (91% of all Counties in Florida) to the members of one Association.
It is time Faith Based Charities stand up and say to our Government, that if you do not want the Faith Based Community to
serve the poor, then start your own food pantries and soup kitchen throughout Florida and the rest of the United States. You
know and I know that it would be impossible for them to serve all the hungry people of our society without the Faith Based
Community.
Keep Praying. Do not let our Government or any other organization tell you that you can not pray with
hurting people.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Lester, Do you have contact information on these leaders we can call to help us? Keep up the good work, we need help.
Brenda
10:01 pm est
Thank you for the info Lester, I couldn't agree more, it seems that at every turn, when trying to acquire
any food Second Harvest is either involved or trying to be. This has been going on slowly at first, but has built up momentum.
When the "first lady" endorses them on TV at least twice a year, it makes it that more difficult to get food to
where it will do the most good.
Peace,
Will
10:00 pm est
2008, A NEW BEGINNING
U.S.D.A. Commodity Program in Florida Press Release |
| | What happened toall the faithbased
charities |
| Florida Association
of Hunger Relief Ministries Just four
years ago, there were thirty to fifty small faithbased hunger relief ministries with contracts to receive U.S.D.A. Commodities
in Florida, now we have one or maybe two. There is one organization that has 91% of all the contracts for U.S.D.A. Commodities
with Florida Department of Agriculture. These small Faithbased hunger relief ministries had served Florida Department
of Agriculture (FDA) faithfully for years and now because FDA has changed their policies and contracts, they no longer
can qualify. I still am not sure why FDA allows one organization to control 91% of all the U.S.D.A. commodities
in Florida. If my information is correct Florida followed much of Texas's commodity program. If anyone would take
the time, they would probelly find that there is a very simular thing happening throughout the differeny states and that one
organization also controls most of the commodity programs if not all of them. |
What can be done? We need to contact our Federal and State elected leaders and ask them to look into these issues. We tried to
keep this in the FDA, but they were not fortcoming with information or cooperation. Very soon we will be contacting
other hunger relief organization to write their representaives and share their thoughts on the commodity program. Remember,
we have right on our side and there are many good people out there that will come to our aid. It tells us in the
Bible that when we are right, to continue and be strong. be Blessed, Lester |
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Florida Association of Hunger Relief Ministries | 7820
Congress Street | New Port Richey | FL | 34653 |
Sunday, January 6, 2008
2008, A NEW BEGINNING
Dear Brothers and Sisters, We must never get discouraged when we
are doing the right thing. If it was just a matter of doing the right thing and then everything would be great, we would not
have all the struggles in liFe that we experience. Take all difficulties as an opportunity to bring the truth to people that
have forgotten that truth prevails. Sometimes I just don't understand our Government
when they are on TV and the newspapers saying things like "Open Government" and "Government of the people and
for the people". When one of the people or a small group of the people cannot even get an answer to concerns they
have that will affect many hungry children and their families. From July 2007 through January 2008 we have tried to receive
an answer to several concerns we have with The Florida Department of Agriculture's T.E.F.A.P. program
and they refuse to answer each of our concerns. The Department of Agriculture keeps having a different Department of Agriculture
employees send the same answer, sorry you did not get the bid, to late and nothing is perfect, instead of answering each of
our concerns. Our concerns were never about those issues, this is just a way of dismissing people when they request answers
to their concerns. We just received a letter in December that stated three employees and the Justice Department met in November
but they did not keep any minutes of the meeting when they went over our 100's of pages of concerns. Is this what is called
"OPEN GOVERNMENT"? Dear friends of helping
the less fortunate of Florida, do not get discouraged, because that is exactly what some would want and then the issues would
be buried and you labeled as "he is just a trouble maker". The only way you or small groups can get the answers
you deserve is to have some high official read your concerns and bring it to the Department Heads, because the Department
Heads could not have seem my letters and accept the answers we received. We have nothing
to hide so we are not afraid to put what we believe in writing, the following is exactly what we would like to accomplish
with all the effort we are putting this. The Department of Agriculture has accomplished eliminating small hard working ministries
whose only agenda is helping the hungry. These ministries were good enough to assist The Department of Agriculture for
many years and then the RFP were changed to make it impossible for them to compete. We would like to see an effort to include
these small ministries that served so well. Remember, one day, someone with authority will read these letters and start to
ask some questions, on that day, things will change. Lester
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
IS THERE ANY FAIRNESS, WHEN DEALING WITH THE GOVERNMENT?
We are having a lot of problems convincing the Department of Agriculture to take our concerns about the commodity program
seriously. We have been trying to convince them for the past three years that there are many unfair issues with the
T.E.F.A.P. commodity contracts. All we asked the Department of Agriculture is to look at all our documentation (which
is their documents) and give our issues the respect they deserve. Each time we bring our concerns to the Department
of Agriculture, they try to change things around by saying the contracts are not perfect, bitter grapes or the contracts are
fiscally responsible, rather then addressing each of our concerns. Some times I think they pre–write these letters
and just change the names of the organizations that have issues with the Department of Agriculture.
The Faith-Based
and Community Charities have been helping less fortunate people long before there was a Department of Agriculture and we will
be serving people a long time after their gone. It’s just so hard for me to understand why they would want to
change something that has been working for so many years. The most troubling is that they are not changing it for the
better but are hurting the back bone of the charity community, the small neighborhood faith-based and community charities.
These new contracts are benefiting all the larger charities, which probably make up only a small part of charities where the
rubber hits the road and they see a live person asking for help.
On the brighter side, we know we are in the
right and if we could convince our representatives and the newspapers that things need to change and why they need to change,
I think we will do great things for the less fortunate of Florida. These agencies will never police themselves and make
changes. Remember, the faith-based and community charities serve 100’s of thousands of voters and tax payers in
Florida. We need to use that to our advantage. In the very near future we will be sending every partnering charity
a list of their representatives and the heads of the different government agencies with all their contact information.
I still think most people are basically good, but some people need to be reminded from time to time. Remember, keep
praying, prayer works.
Lester Cypher
Friday, August 31, 2007
PRAYERS WORK
Bless you Lester and thank you for staying those extra minutes when my daughter got turned around and was late to your
warehouse on Friday. Without that food, we would have been hard pressed to give out any food on Monday.
Ginger W
PRAYER WORKS
WOW,
Thanks very much, Lester, for sharing the praise report! You are such a blessing to me-have been and still
are! I felt impressed yesterday to seek the Lord over the next few weeks-for good reasons-God is blessing me so much.
If I come to your mind, please say a prayer.
This note came at the right time as I begin seeking the Lord.
Thank you for the reminder. Pastor Don B.
GREAT ENCOURAGEMENT
This morning I have jury duty, I mean Josiah duty. I am watching my grandson or the truth be known he's watching
me. He and I went to Evans Mills to get my son's tire fixed on his car. While waiting for the car, Josiah and
I went for a walk over a bridge which ran over a running creek. As we approached the end of the bridge I looked up and
saw the most beautiful red apple tree full of apples. The branches were so full of red ripe apples they were hanging
low from the weight of them. Then the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me and said so many of my children are so full of
ripe fruit and don't even know it. It's one thing to be full of fruit and not give it away, but even more sad to not
know that your branches, your life is full of ripe fruit and your father longs to give it away to those who are so hungry.
The Lord said, that is why so many of my children are so weighed down inside because they have so much fruit and don't know
it, therefore they don't give it away. Today, know that you are full of God's fruit of his Spirit and you have something
to give others, and even eat of yourself. Today you are full of ripe fruit and so beautiful to your God but fruit was
never meant to stay on the tree, but given. A tree full of fruit can be a tree of life today but you must first know
it to be so, within you. A tree full of fruit.
Thanks for listening, Pastor David
Monday, August 6, 2007
A Food Pantry Is Closing
One of our food pantries has come to us and said they are closing their doors after so many years of serving the needy.
We have been partnering with them for over eight years and we will miss them. Most of all, the people they serve will
miss the food that they would receive from that food pantry.
This is not an isolated case, but very common with food pantries. They just cannot afford to stay open and it is
getting harder to get people to volunteer. Please keep praying for the food pantries and soup kitchens that are struggling
to keep their doors open for the hungry people of their communities.
Be Blessed,
Lester
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