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We are on a journey to empower our neighbors by ensuring they have access to food and health services, job training and connections, and support for their children's education. Our vision is a community where every person thrives, so that our community as a whole thrives. As we have for decades, we accomplish this vision through exercising our CORE values: Compassion, Open-Mindedness, Respect and Empowerment.
Our focus is serving our neighbors in Hurst, Euless, and Bedford, but our CORE values lead us to serve anyone who visits our food pantries.
Our Village Pantry is open four days a week and provides groceries to our neighbors, with a focus on providing healthy and fresh foods. This Full Choice Pantry honors our guests by giving them a "point" allotment and inviting them to choose any items they'd like within that points allotment. Healthiest items "cost" the lowest number of points to encourage healthy choices. Twice a month, we host a Mobile Food Pantry at First United Methodist Church of Hurst. At this event, guests may drive through and receive a box of groceries. We share food with 200-300 families at each of these events. Between these programs, we provide food to about a thousand unique families each month.
Our Youth Empowerment Program includes our Village Library and Youth Resource Center. At the Village Library, students receive one-on-one tutoring and homework assistance. Our students come to the program with a low-C average or below, are economically disadvantaged, and have a language barrier in the home that makes homework assistance difficult. Once admitted to our program, they may stay through the 9th grade. Our students see phenomenal improvements and at the end of this past school year, 95% of our students had a B-average or higher and 100% were promoted to the next grade level.
Our Youth Resource Center helps set students up for success post-high school. Participants in grades 10-12 learn about their strengths, learn about budgeting and credit, and get assistance with college/technical school applications and financial aid/scholarships. This new program saw success in its first month, with a student not only gaining college
admission, but also receiving scholarship funding. Once a month, we host a math competition for students of all ages. We have a waiting list of students who want to join us on the first Saturday of the month to work through a written math test and play our fun "Buzz" competition.
Our Community Resource Center invites anyone with a need to visit us to help find and navigate various community resources. We also host events such as blood pressure screenings, mental health education days, and community visioning.
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