After one particularly successful year of providing for families, there was an amazing amount of food items left over. The volunteers of Christmas Cheer were pleased with the giving spirit of our community, but frustrated at the thought that many of these families could use this food throughout the year and not just at Christmas time. These volunteers knew that the need existed for year around food assistance.  They approached their churches and rallied their support.  The churches realized that if they all pitched in, they would be able to assist more needy families than separately and they would eliminate a duplication of services.

They created a nonprofit, borrowed a small kitchen from the Catholic church, and in February 1990, put a pot of soup on the stove, readied bowls and spoons and stood ready to serve the hungry in Onslow County .  Now that first day, no one came. But the group had committed they would operate a soup kitchen for a year. The hungry came; people who had lived on the street, people who went without an adequate meal and people who suddenly found themselves in need of help. All were welcomed without question in the spirit of helping others as an unspoken but powerful testament of the faith of those who had formed the Soup Kitchen.

Faith that there was a need in our community and faith to keep it operating was reinforced by the faith of those who helped to form the Ministries. They wrote it in the organizational documents; they wanted the Ministries to be an extension of the congregations that helped to form the Ministries. They wanted the combination of these congregations to be much more effective than a single congregation could be, and they wanted the community to know there were people who acted on their faith by providing help for others.

The group ‘stepped out in faith’ with a bold step that in 1996 moved the Soup Kitchen from borrowed quarters to its present location. It allowed the Ministries to provide a shelter for those who found themselves without a home. Designed to serve both families and individuals, the Onslow Community Ministries Shelter has provided refuge from the cold, hot and the street for thousands of people.

Another ‘faith step’ came in 1999 with the creation of the Caring Community Clinic. This logical outreach of compassion for those who are sick but do not have insurance or a means to pay for their health care, found support from the medical community and from a community of volunteers.

Volunteers drive the work of the Ministries, and so it was logical that the Ministries house the Jacksonville-Onslow Volunteer Center . This allows the Ministries to help match the spirit of our caring community to the jobs that need to be done to help others.

Today the Outreach also helps the persons seeking assistance with funds funneled from several congregations targeted at helping people with demonstrated needs. The benevolence program works with other providers in our community to avoid duplication and to provide checks on those who ask for help. It does what the founders of Onslow Community Ministries wanted; it acts as an extension of the member congregations.

Today, Onslow Community Outreach serves about 93,000 meals every year, drives 32,000 miles to deploy the soup kitchen trucks in areas of poverty and need, provides emergency shelter for about 275 people every year, ensures that 1400 people get the medical help they need and matches hundreds of jobs that must be done to help others with volunteers who want to help.

And Christmas Cheer, the program that birthed Onslow Community Ministries, helps approximately 4000 people a year and is now a part of Onslow Community Ministries.

The accomplishments and the growth of the ministries over the last 16 years have been nothing short of miraculous.  God has truly blessed our organization.  When there’s a need, things always manage to come together.  Take for example the stove.  One day, Remy (Our Soup Kitchen Manager) said, “We need a new stove”.  As you can imagine a stove that prepares 93,000 meals per year cannot be an ordinary stove.  Of course not, this stove was going to set us back $6,000.  The generosity and compassion of this community is amazing.  Several churches and individuals stepped up and offered the financial backing for our stove.  The cooks are very excited and appreciative of this new equipment.

Besides a new stove, we have recently renovated our shelter and administrative offices.  We have fresh coats of paint, new carpets and new mattresses (all thanks to generous donations from the community).  We have also extended the hours of service at the shelter from 2 p.m. – 8 a.m. Monday – Friday and 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. on the weekends.  This has allowed us to assist our residents during daytime hours with job hunting, counseling and obtaining DSS services.  We truly believe that these extended hours will allow us more opportunity to help our residents change their circumstance.

These recent changes are incredible, but unfortunately there is still so much more we haven’t been able to do.

Someday, we hope to be able to serve meals to the hungry in Sneads Ferry.  Our Soup Kitchen trucks go to Richlands, Belgrade , Maysville and Swansboro – but we have been unable to meet the request of providing a Soup Kitchen truck to Sneads Ferry.  Besides the obvious cost of a truck, the cost of gasoline has made this cost prohibitive.

Someday, we hope to run the soup kitchen 7 days per week and serve 2 meals a day instead of one.

Someday, we hope to be able to operate our homeless shelter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and provide a full range of services geared at helping the homeless find permanent residences.

Someday, we hope to have the funds to pay full-time physicians to operate The Caring Community Clinic.  Our goal is to no longer turn patients away and be able to operate during daytime hours.

Someday, we hope to be able to offer a much needed dental clinic and a vision clinic.

Someday, we hope to have a permanent building committed to housing the Christmas Cheer program every year. 

Your Onslow Community Outreach is the work of congregations and caring community members. They are responsible for saving lives by providing medical attention for those who would have no medical help without the free clinic… They are responsible in helping to feed thousands of hungry people in our community…They are responsible for housing hundreds each year in the homeless shelter…and They are responsible for demonstrating their faith in volunteering, supporting and advocating for Onslow Community Outreach.