By Beacon Staff
Last year, heavy construction equipment tore down the former Caston’s Shoe Store at 818 Maple Street.
Now, hope is growing from that same spot.
The City Hope Foundation — a charity dedicated to helping anyone in need, will house its new headquarters and food pantry in a 3,000-square-foot building currently being built on the site in Burlington.
City Hope Foundation executive director Matt Shinn said the extra space for The Cupboard food pantry will help the foundation meet a growing need.
Pantry coordinator Angie Brown said The Cupboard, located at 914 Maple St., serves about 30 to 35 families per week. A few weeks ago, The Cupboard broke a record by helping 107 families in a single week.
“One issue right now, we can’t get enough food in The Cupboard to feed that many people,” Shinn said.
City Hope has been operating out of the Maple Leaf Center next door to the pantry. They will be reopening the building for youth activities in September. At that time, Shinn and Brown planned on moving into the new building, with about two-thirds of the structure allocated for the food pantry.
Once the food pantry is operational in the new building, it will be open five days a week instead of three.
Brown will be hosting basic cooking classes for those with little to no kitchen experience, which she has done in the past.
“We’ve started out by teaching how to cook in a Crockpot, and everyone got to take home a Crockpot,” Brown said.
“We were finding that people were intimidated by things like making rice, making pasta. They would look at that as the hurdle.”
City Hope was designed as a multi-faceted organization to address poverty and includes a 12-week financial literacy course and life training course. Those classes, which have been taught in the Maple Leaf Center, will be moved to the classrooms in the new headquarters building.
Brown and Shinn agree that City Hope should feel like a community destination, without the stigma many associates with food pantries.
Brown said the pantry operated in Danville for 20 years, which made it hard to access for many people. More availability has shed a light on more needs.
“There’s no shame here. We’ve all needed a hand at one point or another,” Shinn said.
Brown said she is looking forward to sitting on a bench outside the new City Hope building just so she can talk to people. As she noted, it’s not a place to be hidden — it’s a place to be celebrated.
“We want this to be a community food pantry,” she said.
Further expansion
The completion of the City Hope building in August will just be the start. Shinn said the foundation owns two lots behind the Maple Leaf Center that will likely be turned into an indoor gymnasium.
In addition, the house behind the new headquarters building is being turned into an art studio called The Creator Studio, and a woodworking shop will be housed in the garage behind the house. Woodworking courses will be taught in the shop.
Both additions are meant to go beyond meeting the basic needs provided by a food pantry.
“We want this to be a bright place,” Brown said, “We want people to feel loved.”
City Hope recently opened another food pantry in Fort Madison and will likely expand into Mount Pleasant after receiving a generous donation that is to be used to purchase a building. Shinn said that although City Hope was made possible by Harmony Bible Church, the foundation is a separate entity from the church.
City Hope is non-denominational, and Shinn has been meeting with local church leaders weekly. The focus will always be the same — relationship development, youth, work-life, and neighborhood development.
“We want the churches to come together and be one and address the needs of our community,” Shinn said.