Two local pastors are utilising the platform of their church to make positive change in the community, one bag of groceries at a time.
Whitsunday Impact Church pastors Sam and Josh Faltinsky began their ‘Community Pantry’ six weeks ago, distributing food to “those who need it most” in the small sugar town.
Taking in donations of canned goods, vouchers, groceries, and more from locals, their Community Pantry has quickly taken off – both on the donation and collection front.
People from “all walks of life” have dropped by in their time of need to receive food assistance, as well as drop off astounding donations.
“We’ve had people drop by a full $500 dollars’ worth of groceries for donation, and we’ve had up to $1500 in vouchers for those in need, too,” Pastor Josh Faltinsky said.
His wife and co-pastor, Sam Faltinsky, said the idea was to help the community originally through crisis care - helping a few people find a room for the night.
It quickly became apparent locals needed more help than just housing, and Sam said it was now “a way to help people eat every week.”
“The cost of living has gone crazy, and we were helping these people with rooms, but what they really needed a lot of the time was food,” she said.
“We started collecting donations as a church: non-perishable items that we’d be giving out.
“It just grew from there, and now we have a huge collection of food that comes in every week, and then disappears when we open up our doors on a Tuesday. People in the community pop by for their free bag of food, no questions asked.”
Josh said it was a way for their church to “fill the gap” that was being felt in Proserpine, with the town’s extremely limited options for assistance of this type.
“We’re kind of the third party that is distributing the generosity. We’ve found a real need, and we’ll fill the gap. We want to keep growing it,” he said.
“Now, we’re wanting for our community to rise up as well and take responsibility of those less fortunate.
“I can see it being open more than one day soon – we just need more volunteers – and it could be a whole warehouse of food for those in need eventually.”
Whitsunday Impact Church Community Pantry is being run as an entirely volunteer operation each Tuesday, opening at 9.00am to 12.00pm at the 202-204 Bruce Highway church.
“Our biggest heart as a church is: what can we do for our community. How are we giving back and impacting our community,” Sam said.
“You can come in, no strings attached, it’s just if you need a hand, come in and get a bag of food.”
Local pastors in Proserpine, Sam and Josh Faltinsky, have begun a ‘Community Pantry’, donating grocery goods to “those who need it most”
