In the year 2023, we clothes 1001 people. Every year we give clothing to the Salvation Army, Crosspointe and Purple Heart. This year we were able to give out 931 bags of clothing to Purple Heart and Crosspointe.
In 2023 we had over 2,891 people volunteer their time in the Lighthouse. These volunteers came in and worked in the soup kitchen, stocked shelves in our pantry and helped prepare food orders to hand out to the needy families.
Our drivers, Richard, Mike, James and Steve are now picking up 51 times a week, that’s over 653 pick ups a year. We pick up donations of baked goods, canned goods and milk & juice as well as prepared foods from many different organizations that believe in what we are doing and want to be involved, including the Rainbows that give faithfully every year, God bless them.
Gene and James picked up from over 200 locations, household goods and furniture that was donated to us. We have been able to place 7 donation containers in surrounding stores and restaurants and we have helped many people relocate to shelters and rehab centers and many more have found jobs and have been able to get their own place.
We fed 61 people at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner in our soup kitchen and. Light & Life Church as well as many other churches int he area provided 50,000 sandwiches for our soup kitchen last year. We have served over 19,000 meals in our soup kitchen in 2023.
Eddy’s restaurant has been generous in donating soup last year. Also KFC, Bob Evans, Tim Horton’s, Top Notch, Costco, Taco Bell, Olive Garden and Pizza Hut & Gracie See’s, as well as many others.
We also receive food from Forgotten Harvest; they deliver food from area restaurants, store and banquet halls to help feed the people that come into our soup kitchen. We received over 650,000 pounds of food from them in 2023, that’s over 325 tons of food.
We have 2 food programs. The first program is to feed people on an emergency basis. The second program is for people that need food more often; the second food program distributes the food after church service on Wednesday and Sunday. And as a result of this we have had over 604 people come to our service to pick up their food and hear the word of God.
We helped 1,098 people for Christmas and Thanksgiving, and gave out Christmas gifts to 137 children.
We fed over 12,048 people through our pantry that is double what we did in 2022. We also helped many three quarter houses and group homes with food and clothes for 129 clients. We also received over 20,000 lbs of fresh fruits and veggies from Gleaners that were given out to the needy.
We also work with these organizations and churches:
North Brothers Ford, The Kentuckians of Michigan, The Inkster and Westland Police and Fire Departments and 25 local churches and 27 other agencies who believe in what we are doing and want to help.
We have had many people that have come to our soup kitchen and have been ministered to and received the Word of God and have heard our pastor by DVD.
Altogether we have fed and clothes in the year 2023, 13,049 people. Just through the Lighthouse soup kitchen and pantry and clothing ministry.
We have a resale shop, Mr. Haney’s, where 100% of the proceeds go to feed the needy and we’re looking forward to seeing each and every one of you there because this will help us to keep food in our pantry.
Our Warming Center last year was closed due to Covid-19. Because so many of our volunteer churches had closed that we had to close. Still, we helped so many stay alive and find the Lord. We are able to find 2 people housing, 3 people jobs, and 3 of them got saved. We were also able to get 1 into permanent shelters last year.
St. Edith Catholic Church of Livonia took up collections during the year and were able to provide paper produts and socks.
Last year our numbers were way up due to the massive job losses and family hardships caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, but we never closed. Our staff and volunteers chose to work through all of the shutdowns going on around us because they realized that hunger doesn’t go away, that the poor will always be with us and hey stepped up to the challenge.
Rev. Richard Mongo came on a our Community Outreach Coordinator. He has attended monthly health and wellness advisory meetings with other community relations reps, charing Lighthouse news for community relations. Rev. Mongo, Paola and Mark attended the Wayne Westland Resource Fair where they served 750 participants. This fair had expected attendance of 2000 but the actual count was over 5000 participants.
I would liek to acknowledge teh Lighthouse staff and our volunteers who work so hard to accomplish all of the things that christ has called us to do. I would liek to thank the congregation of Full Gospel Temple for all of your prayers and financial support. Because without your prayers and support there would be no Lighthouse.
And we would like to give a special thank you to our Senior Pastor Michael Enersen, for his faith and support, in what God has called us to do.
Respectfully Submitted
Pastor Carol Beneteau