PRAGMATIC PRESBYTERIANS

Pragmatic Presbyterians (formerly known as The Poverty Group) is a group of members and friends committed to responding in gratitude to God's love and grace by following Jesus and serving him among Knoxville residents who are experiencing the impacts of poverty. Churches throughout our community are working together to meet needs that fall in the gaps between social service offerings for these individuals and families.

Did you know? According to Eric Tars, the legal director of the National Homelessness Law Center, "the biggest cause of homelessness in America is lack of affordable housing." According to the Knoxville News Sentinel on April 24th, rent in Knoxville rose nearly 13% from January 2022 to January 2023 and the average cost to rent a one bedroom, one bath apartment is $1269.

Pragmatic Presbyterians will meet at 7 PM on Wednesdays May 10th and 24th in the Barbour Room. Zoom is available for interested people who cannot attend in person. Please contact Kathy Duggan (kduggan55@gmail.com) or Janis Smith (smithjb1@gmail.com) for more information or if you would like to attend via Zoom.

Several months ago, Mary Farmer, one of our Fish volunteers, said to me, “It might be a good idea to publish a description of how Fish works. Many people probably have heard of it, but don’t know what we do and who benefits ” To which I replied, “That’s a good idea.” It’s taken me a while to actually follow up on her suggestion, but here goes…

Fish is one of Second’s longest on-going missions at our current location Countless numbers of church members have been involved over several decades, going back at least to the ‘70’s. And some current participants are into the legacy category for their long-term commitment

Food insecurity being a critical issue for families and individuals in every community including Knox County, Second is one of over a dozen area churches in an umbrella group known as the West Knox Fish Pantry that attempts to address this daunting problem.

Most of those churches contribute to and pull food from a single large pantry, but we are one of the few that maintains its own pantry It’s located in one of the small rooms off the hall leading to the portico. We buy most of our food from Second Harvest, a large non-profit operation located in Maryville that supplies several east Tennessee counties. They are a more cost effective procurement source than buying commercial, but items on our shopping list that they may not have we buy from retail sources.

The WKFP churches take turns on assigned days throughout each month, using software that forwards the Fish call-in phone number to that church’s phone system Our day is the 4th Tuesday, and we are committed to doing that every month.

We take calls, pack, and deliver food (mainly canned and dry), household products, personal toiletries, disposable diapers, and even pet food to Knox County residents in need. The Fish call-in phone number is widely published via various social service agencies and also spreads peer to peer. And it’s an honor system – there is no vetting. diapers, and even pet food to Knox County residents in need The Fish call-in phone number is widely published via various social service agencies and also spreads peer to peer. And it’s an honor system – there is no vetting.

Our table set-up is in the Fellowship Hall. Between coordination, packing, and delivering, a dozen or more volunteers are typically involved in the effort. We open the phone line by 8:30 in the morning, getting information from each caller that includes name, phone number and addresses, how many in the household (which determines how much food we pack), age ranges (for Second Harvest record keeping), and optional requests such as pet food.

Supplies are brought out from the pantry room, and the packing team goes into motion by 9:00, picking items and filling paper grocery bags as needed for each household along with plastic bags pre-packed with the household/toiletry items. The grocery bags for each client household are labeled and moved to alphabetized stations for pickup by the delivery folks. We also attach flyers with contact info for all sorts of additional assistance resources.

Delivery addresses are sorted into separate routes and assigned to pairs of drivers, who arrive around 11:00, load up, and begin their deliveries Our household total is typically capped at twenty (but we’d like to do more – see below), and clients can be scattered all over Knox County in a variety of living scenarios – public housing, apartments, single-family residences, and motels.

The follow-up includes inventorying and restocking the pantry with the pickup of our monthly order at Second Harvest, reporting household age-range numbers to Second Harvest per their requirements, and then putting out the call once again the following month to our pool of dedicated volunteers.

We also announce via the Friday church-wide email what household/personal items we are running short on We are blessed to have some very generous church members who track that wish list and online order those items for us

HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT OUR FISH PANTRY MISSION:

1) Volunteer for the delivery team. It’s just one day/month (the 4th Tuesday) for a few hours in the early afternoon. The number of households we deliver to is limited only by the number of people available to participate as drivers and codrivers.

2) Donate to the Fish Pantry designated fund. All purchased food and other items are paid out of this fund. List “Fish Pantry” in the memo line of your check.

3) Come to the May 9th Presbyterian Women’s gathering at 10 a.m. where Lauren Dodson and I will be talking about the Fish mission to get more information.

Contact Dick Dodson, (rtdodson52@gmail.com or 865-414-7413) with any questions or to join this decades-long community mission.

The Entrance Garden has been planted with hibiscus and other flowers for the summer thanks to Ileen and Jimmy Cheek, Bill Tapp and Sandra Butler.

The Pentecost Offering will be received on SUNDAY, MAY 21ST AND PENTECOST SUNDAY, MAY 28TH.

Second Presbyterian

Second Presbyterian Church

TUESDAY, MAY 9TH

MEDIC Mobile on Site 2829 Kingston Pike

ALL TYPES NEEDED! APPOINTMENTS ARE PREFERRED. Call to schedule an appointment at 865-524-3074, visit www tndonor org or scan the QR code

Highlights from April 2023 Highlights from April 2023

Stated Session Meeting Stated Session Meeting

Received reports from the Preschool and Ministry Teams as information. Received the Treasurer’s Report as information

Approved the transfer of Cathy Gray to the Washington Presbyterian Church, Corryton TN.

Chose Elder Mary Kay Sullivan to represent the church at the Presbytery of East Tennessee Meeting at Westminster Presbyterian Church on May 16, 2023.

Thanked outgoing Elders Tracy Horton, Neal Peebles, Charles White, and Tim Wright for their service.

T h e e v e n t s i n c l u d e d i n t h i s c a l e n d a r w i l l t a k e p l a c e a s l i s t e d i f w e a r e i n C O V I D P h a s e G r e e n o r Y e l l o w , B U T N O T i f R e d P l e a s e s e e t h e h o m e p a g e & c a l e n d a r o n o u r w e b s i t e , 2 n d p r e s . o r g w i t h u pt od a t e i n f o r m a t i o n o n C O V I D P h a s e c h a n g e s a n d n e w c r i t e r i a , a s w e l l a s r e a lt i m e c a l e n d a r u p d a t e s .