Central Arkansas – Due to a lack of resources and funding, a local church that helps feed the hungry in Central Arkansas is having to limit its outreach.
According to Klay Parham, director of the outreach ministry at From His Throne Ministries, the church has been around for decades, helping feed the homeless.
“This thing started 26 years ago under the Broadway bridge, Pastor Joe Malat and his mom started this. It was just a family thing and it’s always been a family thing,” Parham said. “Regardless of us not getting funding, we still keep the doors open, up until 3 weeks ago.”
Other churches and organizations collaborate to help provide food to the hungry five days a week. However, he said things have not been the same since the pandemic hit, he said. “Unfortunately due to post-pandemic things, inflation going up, a lot of churches didn’t come up after the pandemic,” Parham said. ” So as a church, we had to start footing the bit ourselves.”
According to Parham, just last Sunday his church air-conditioning caught on fire during church service, which has set them back since they have limited funding to make repairs and insurance does not cover it. “We thought the church was on fire with jubilation, we thought with smoke in the building, we were worshiping the Lord–but no,” Parham said, ” We had an actual fire.”
The van they use to deliver food out in the community is also in need of repair so it limits their effort, Parham said.
According to Parham, due to these events, they’re only able to open their doors twice a week which means there are people who are going without food.
In order to continue helping those in need, Parham is calling for help from organizations and from the community.