WATCH NOW: Need rises, giving falls amid pandemic; CCMO seeks food, donations

An outreach ministry that has been providing the needy with food and other necessities for 33 years is asking the community to help it continue its mission.

The volunteers who run the Cooperative Church Ministries of Orangeburg have not stopped assisting those needing help the most.

Its dedicated volunteers have helped keep the organization going with services well beyond food donations to include the provision of electricity, eye glasses, fuel and, occasionally, clothing, bus tickets and motel rooms.

CCMO Executive Director Barbara Troy, 82, said the nonprofit is now seeking donations for its dwindling food pantry, along with financial donations to help keep the organization up and going.

“Our financial donations are down. Food donations are down. I think it’s because of the uncertainty of just life itself. Because of the pandemic, people are just in shock that it happened and spread so fast,” Troy said.

CCMO volunteer the Rev. Thelma Johnson said giving has also been impacted, with many churches still not fully open amid the pandemic.

“A lot of people hadn’t even been going to church. So that could have been part of it,” Johnson said.

CCMO Assistant Director Bess Goodwin said the pandemic also caused the loss of a huge food donation that would have usually come from the Orangeburg Post Office’s participation in the nationwide “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive in May.

The local postal food drive hasn’t been held since 2019, but had provided food to the organization that would sometimes last until Christmas.

“They usually had that the Saturday before Mother’s Day. That usually helped us out. Then with the school closings and stuff, they used to have food drives for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They don’t have that anymore. It’s a big difference,” Goodwin said.

The organization is seeking donations of nonperishable food items, including canned goods and boxed food items such as grits, pasta and rice. Face masks, soap, toothpaste, deodorant and other personal items are also needed.

A partnership with the Department of Public Utilities and its Project Good Neighbor program has provided CCMO with the opportunity to provide utility assistance.

“That helps with utility bills. We definitely need that,” Troy said.

She noted that requests for help are up. Troy again attributed it to the impact the pandemic has had on people’s lives.

“Last summer, children were home. If you didn’t have child care, you couldn’t work. So the parents being home and not having child care, they were unable to work. Now that the schools are open, some people are still in a predicament. I had a client where everybody in their house caught the virus. So they had to quit their jobs. I hope it’s going to get better,” Troy said.

Goodwin said, “We’ve noticed that we have a lot of people moving from the North or the West or wherever coming to live in Orangeburg.

“They say they’re homeless. … We give them food. Sometimes we have to give them a motel for a couple of nights and stuff. We have people sleeping in their cars and stuff, and they’ve got kids.”

Volunteers are also needed.

CCMO volunteer Sandra Hudson said, “It would also be nice if we could get some people in special fields. We could definitely use a lot of that kind of volunteer help,” noting that at one time the organization had a nurse, tax expert and social worker on site to help clients.

“We lost a lot of that stuff before the pandemic. We could definitely use a lot of that kind of help,” she said.

Harvest Hope Food Bank provides food to several ministries across the state, including CCMO. Troy said volunteers are also needed to assist with the pickup and delivery of food from the food bank.

The financial base for CCMO is its member churches, which contribute to the ministry. While the organization does not depend on miscellaneous donations, they are welcome.

The Rev. Eddie Williams, the newly elected chairman of the CCMO board, said his goal will be to drum up more support from the community, particularly since the needs of the less fortunate are not going away.

“The need is so great. You have a great need here in the community now, and you’re also looking at how to keep an organization afloat that is looking for the community to help support it,” Williams said. The community’s “hands, heart and help” are needed.

“It’s one thing to say you care, but with an organization such as this, what drives it forward is hands and bodies. We need volunteers, as well as financial donations,” he said.

Williams said he will be making an appeal to CCMO’s member churches, as well as to the greater community for support.

“It is an organization that has been here for a while and has supported the community at large,” he said, noting that he is proud of the multi-faceted work CCMO has done for more than three decades.

Troy said, “It’s only because of God that we’re still here.”

CCMO is located at 2570 St. Matthews Road in the Orangeburg County Council on Aging Building. The center is open from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Only 15 clients can be seen on a given day and are processed on a first-come, first-serve basis. All clients must wear masks and have ID.

For more information on CCMO, or how you can donate or volunteer, please call 803-531-4913, visit the organization’s new website at myccmo.com, or mail checks payable to CCMO to: CCMO, P.O. Box 2323, Orangeburg, SC 29116-2323.