Buckner Crisis Relief Center meets ongoing family needs

Posted: 10/14/05

Buckner Crisis Relief Center
meets ongoing family needs

By Jenny Pope

Buckner Benevolences

DALLAS–Jackie Belt's name is so well known in East Dallas, it's said to be etched into seatbacks of city buses. It's passed around neighborhoods, shared between friends and even inspired one family to name their son in his honor.

In East Dallas, Jackie Belt is a household name.

As manager of the Buckner Crisis Relief Center almost 10 years, Belt has become a local hero by helping thousands of families get back on their feet and providing the most essential need for survival–food.

“There are so many people who are hungry,” Belt said. “They don't make enough, and their money doesn't go far enough to buy the amounts of food that they need. There are a lot of large families around here with a lot of children, and they're hungry.”

Belt loads a shopping cart with food for a hungry family.

“It's important to meet physical needs first,” said Felipe Garza, vice president of Buckner Children and Family Services. “When we're working with a child–whether it's in our community centers or after-school programs–we find out a lot about their issues. But it's hard to talk to a child about education or get them involved in school when they haven't had a proper meal.”

Buckner Crisis Relief Center has served East Dallas more than 40 years. Close to one-third of the families in the area live below poverty level, and the Crisis Relief Center serves between 75 and 100 people each day.

The center has taken in 250,000 pounds of food this year through individual and church donations, as well as through a partnership with the North Texas Food Bank.

On a common day, Belt might arrive to work and find 30 families lined around the building by 8:30 a.m. On an uncommon day, like those since Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, he finds even more.

“Things have been really busy,” he said. “We helped 277 Katrina families in September with food, clothing, furniture and rental assistance. In the food pantry alone, we served 2,263 people.

“That's the biggest month we've ever had.”

In addition to the Crisis Relief Center, Belt also coordinates the Food for Families program held on the second Friday of each month at Urbandale Baptist Church in Dallas. The North Texas Food Bank provides 10 to 12 pallets of food, enough to feed 250 families every month.

“We helped almost 800 people in September,” Belt said. “They line up in the parking lot early in the morning, and we'll come by with volunteers to load food in their trunk. We usually have about 30 to 40 people helping out.”

Donors from around Dallas–and recently around the country–drop donations on his doorstep, mail them or drive 18-wheelers across the country like an Ohio grade- school parent did in September. If an item is too large for an individual to deliver, Belt will gladly pick it up himself.

“We really need beds and living room furniture–for people to help set up their apartments,” he said. “And we always need volunteers, especially during the weekdays.”

While the Crisis Relief Center is the largest Buckner food pantry, every Buckner facility in Texas provides food and clothing to qualified clients, Garza said.

One example is Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall, where Buckner supports a community ministry program. Van Grubbs, Buckner community ministries director, organizes the church's food pantry and collects nonperishable items through “Food of the Month” collections in Adult Bible Fellowship classes.

Each month, they provide food for more than 600 people at both their church and Rockwall County Helping Hands.

“We used to do a food drive once a year, and people would bring in lots of stuff,” Grubbs said. “But what happens is you get a whole lot of 'I don't like the taste of that, so here's some lima beans' or 'Here's some fat-free, sugar-free I-decided-not-to-do-that-diet-anymore can of peas,' and that's not what we're looking for.”

Grubbs decided to get specific and ask for two types of food each month, intentionally restocking shelves with necessary items and supplementing the Helping Hands food bank.

“This way, we're actually targeting what we're low on in the community,” he said. “Anyone who wants to provide food should think about what you would want to serve your own family. We should treat people biblically, as though we're giving them a party, not our throwaways.”

Buckner Orphan Care International, the international arm of Buckner Benevolences, also donates $20,000 worth of baby formula each year to their Romanian orphanage and sends an estimated $100,000 of vitamins each year to every orphanage they work with around the world. In addition to supplies, Buckner also renovates dilapidated kitchens for better food service.

“We've renovated several kitchens in orphanages in Guatemala, Russia, Romania and Africa and replaced many appliances along the way,” said Amy Norton, director of international programs for Buckner.

“There's a baby home in St. Petersburg that I visited last November and found out that their stoves were from the 1950s. They were so old that one of the ladies had to go to her apartment to cook and bring food back for 125 children. Right after that trip, before we could raise the money to replace it, the stove caught on fire. Everyone was OK, but it shows you how desperately it was needed.”

The Crisis Relief Center, Lake Pointe food pantry and international donations and renovations all have one thing in common, Garza observed. They open the door for Buckner's ministry and open people's hearts to God.

“The best example to me is Christ our Lord,” he said. “Think about it. He preached the word, he communicated and counseled the people … but before he could do any of that, he fed them.”

Belt recalls many stories of God's perfect timing, whether it's an unprecedented donation of dog food to meet a woman's unusual prior request or a donated special-needs wheelchair with monogrammed letters that “conveniently” met the needs of another disabled boy with the same name.

“God will surprise you,” Belt said, “He surprises me every day. Sometimes I think angels walk in here, because they're gone so quickly, and I don't see them anymore.”

Belt lives each day by the verse scrawled on a crumpled piece of paper in his wallet, Matthew 25:40.

“The Lord says, what you've done unto the least of these, you've done it to me. That's why I do what I do; that's my Scripture.”

For more information about Buckner Crisis Relief Center, call (214) 275-9002.