The need for more space was inevitable at this point.  On September 15, 2006 the Mahoning County “Extreme Makeover” My Hometown sponsored by WYTV Channel 33 and hundreds of Valley businesses joined together to build The Big Reach Center of Hope. This 22,000 square foot facility was erected in about ten days completed with offices, classrooms, a kitchen, a warehouse

and more.

In October of 2006 The Big Reach Center of Hope opened its doors to low income and underserved families and individuals in the MahoningValley and surrounding communities. In December of 2006 Big Reach Christmas was held in our new facility and reached out to 553 families, 1,245 children who all received food, clothes, new toys and much more. As the new facility opened in this year it gave us the opportunity to reach out to many more individuals and families in need. In 2006 we assisted 5,721 families and 20,713 individuals.

The Big Reach Center of Hope developed a partnership in 2007 with the Mahoning County Educational Service Center, where we became a training site for high school students from Mahoning County schools. Soon after, we partnered with Hope House Visitation Center in Youngstown in which they are currently using our facility as their rural visitation center location. In March of 2007 Big Reach Easter was successful, as we distributed 1,200 Easter baskets to children from birth to 12 years of age. In April of 2007 McMaster’s Farms partnered with us as part of our Hope Harvest Project in which they planted fields of sweet corn and pumpkins.

The Big Reach Center of Hope began their Homeless Outreach in April of 2007 as they partnered with The Greater Youngstown Point. The Center of Hope went to Youngstown and passed out boxes of food, clothes, blankets, and Bibles to the homeless. Big Reach partnered with Home Savings in Youngstown for Big Reach Back to School which was held in August 2007. They purchased 800 new book bags to be distributed to low income and underserved children. They also collected school supplies from all of their Mahoning, Columbiana and Trumbull county branches. During Big Reach Back to School 2007 331 families received food and clothing and 862 children received new book bags and new clothes.

Also in August of 2007 The Big Reach Center of Hope held its first annual golf outing benefit at the Salem Golf Club. Forty-five golfers participated and $9,957.02 was raised to help off set the loan on the Center of Hope. In October of 2007 the Homeless Outreach returned to Youngstown where we helped 181 families and 410 individuals with food, clothing, blankets and bibles. In October of 2007 we held our first annual Big Reach Pumpkin Festival. 350 children attended with their parents and all were able to pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, receive free food and more. The Big Reach Center of Hope held its first annual “Hope Gala” in November of 2007 at Mr. Anthony’s in Boardman, Ohio. With 200 guests present to enjoy dinner, dancing and auctions we raised $23,000 to help off set the loan on the Center of Hope facility.

In November of 2007 we partnered with Mahoning County Job and Family services to become a work site sponsor for their Work Experience Program. For Big Reach Christmas 2007 we distributed 1,800 new toys to children. We also distributed food to over 1,000 families and gifts to over 300 senior citizens. In 2007 we assisted 8,590 families and 29,487 individuals with food and clothing. 2008 was a record breaking year. The Center of Hope reached out to 9,248 families and fed and clothed 33,816 individuals.

2008 was definitely another year of taking steps of faith and that is exactly what we did.  The need continued to rise and so did the work at the Center of Hope.  Even though we had awesome volunteers helping with the daily operation, it was time to take the step of hiring staff.  In September 2008 we hired Randy Manning as our part-time warehouse manager, in just two months time he became a full-time staff member.  We also received a grant in September 2008 from the J. Ford Crandall Memorial Foundation to purchase an 8x18 ft. walk-in cooler with a pallet door.  This increased our cooler storage space and allowed us to store a few pallets of product. 

We withdrew our membership from Second Harvest Food Bank and trusted that God would open doors through our partnership with Operation Blessing along with other sources and that is exactly what He did!

We partnered with Columbiana County Job and Family Services as a work site for their Work Experience Program.  The extra help was a huge blessing in the day to day maintenance of our operation. 

2008 was a year full of events.  We started with our Easter Basket distribution and with the help of the Mahoning Valley Community Foundation we were able to pass out over 1,000 Easter baskets.  We held our 2^nd annual homeless outreach, “Feed the Need” in downtown Youngstown reaching out to approximately 600 individuals.  Once again, on the first Saturday in August we held our Back to School event which, like always, was a huge success.  We held our 2^nd annual Pumpkin Festival at the Big Reach Center of Hope which encouraged family togetherness and allowed each child to obtain their very own pumpkin.  Our 2^nd annual Hope Gala fundraiser was held at Mr. Anthony’s in Boardman, Ohio and helped us raise enough funds to help pay off our facility.  And ending the year we held our Christmas distribution which focuses on giving children a brand new toy for Christmas.  Parents entered our “ToyLand” and personally picked out brand new, unwrapped, donated gifts that they believed would make their child’s Christmas a little bit brighter.  We ended 2008 by reaching out to 33,816 individuals.

2009 was the year that the Big Reach Center of Hope felt the pains of the recession.  Our numbers of families we were reaching out to increased dramatically.  We pushed forward and continued with our normal programs.  We hired our second Big Reach staff member.  We welcomed Lisa Wallace as our part-time donation coordinator.  Lisa works with area businesses and organizations to schedule food drives, she works on grants and is always searching for more Big Reach Partners.

We partnered with New Bethel Baptist Church in Youngstown along with Greater Youngstown Point and we held our 3^rd annual “Feed the Need” homeless outreach event.  We also partnered with WRTA (Western Reserve Transit Authority) in Youngstown to bus the homeless individuals from around the city to our event, free of charge.  We reached out and fed 1,200 homeless individuals.

Through a grant from the Mahoning Valley Community Foundation and a private donor we were blessed with the ability to purchase our 22 foot box truck.  We were also blessed to receive from Diamond Equipment in Youngstown along with a private donor, our 1992 Clark Electric fork lift with battery and charger for our warehouse operations.

In 2009 we also received a grant from the Youngstown Foundation which allowed us to purchase 112 brand new shopping carts for our food pantry.  Each cart handle was inscribed with our motto, “God is in Control”. 

Several new programs were started in 2009.  Through a partnership with White Tail Deer Processing in North Lima, our “Donate Deer” was started.  Through this program our local hunters are able to donate their prey to the Big Reach Center of Hope.  White Tail then processes the meat and packages it allowing us to distribute it in our food pantry.

We were also blessed by Larry Larue, a local farmer.  He plants acres of green beans, tomatoes, peppers and cabbage on his farm.  He donates the produce to the Big Reach Center of Hope.  In return we send numerous volunteers to his fields, including some of our clientele and Greenford Christian Church members to aid in the harvesting.  He also has a passion to minister to the volunteers as well.

In September 2009 our numbers were growing rapidly and we needed more help.  We decided to implement our “Client Volunteer Work Program”.  This program allows the individuals we help to give back by volunteering their time to help keep the Big Reach Center of Hope in operation.  On a weekly basis, our clientele help wherever they are needed and they are able to bank their volunteer hours in order to receive further assistance.  Our lines continued to grow and God continued to provide.

In the fall of 2009 we kicked off our “Food for Thought” backpack program in the Alliance City Schools.  Each week we deliver backpacks full of child-friendly food.  These backpacks are distributed to children in need who have shown signs of chronic hunger or are from a low income family.  We reached out to 40 children every week for the 2009-2010 school year.

Half way into 2009 we felt the pain the recession was leaving on our community and how it affected our local economy.  We held our 3^rd annual Hope Gala Fundraiser and the outcome was an eye opener to how bad things really were.  Even though we were still able to raise some funds, we took a huge hit compared to the year before.  The staff was crushed and broken but it was just a reminder of how bad the economy really was in our area.  The Greenford Christian Church Missions blessed us by paying off our facility. 

At the end of 2009, we had fed and clothed over 55,000 individuals!  It was time for us to brainstorm new ways of raising money in order to keep up with the huge demand that was lining up at our front door every Tuesday and Thursday.  So we prayed.

2010 was an exciting time of change for the Center of Hope.  We started the year with an intern from Youngstown State University who was a huge asset in planning our 4^th annual “Feed the Need” event.  The event was bigger than the previous years and forced us to move the location to the Covelli Centre in the heart of Youngstown.  We partnered with many area businesses and organizations to reach out to over 2,000 individuals.  We partnered with the Bob Evans restaurant in Canfield to hold our first “Community Night Fundraiser”.  We passed out fliers that, when presented with a restaurant bill would allow Bob Evans to donate 15% of that bill back to the Big Reach Center of Hope.  It was smaller fundraiser that required very little work and brought in additional funds. 

We also tweaked our Easter distribution this year.  We set up a room with shelves of candy, small toys and other Easter basket goodies and families were able to enter and “shop” for the items they desired to put in their child’s basket.  We passed out enough Easter themed items to fill over 1,000 baskets. 

June 5, 2010 was the kick off for our new big fundraiser.  We welcomed NBC’s Biggest Loser Season 8 winner, Danny Cahill and his wife Darci to our first walk-a-thon, “A Walk for Hope”.  We partnered with WFMJ TV21, The DeBartolo Corporation, Pure & Simple Coffee and Tiger Pack, Inc. to walk for a cause.  We were blessed with over 100 walkers and thousands of dollars in donated money for our organization. 

We partnered with the Mahoning Valley Scrappers who willingly ran a couple food drives for us to help us stock our food pantry and they also ran a school supply drive for our Back to School event.  We also partners with several local restaurants and bakeries to pick up food that they willingly donated to us.  In 2010 we picked up 63,900 pounds of food from businesses such as Panera Bread, Classic Bakery, GFS, Salem Giant Eagle, Hogan’s Bakery, Canfield IGA, Olive Garden, Pizza Hut, Plaza Donuts, SalemCommunityHospital and Das Dutch Haus Restaurant.

The first Saturday in August was our Back to School event.  Several 2009 sponsors partnered with us once again to make this event successful!  We were blessed by the partnership of Unison Health Care, Home Savings, 21WFMJ, Operation Blessing, V & M Star, Bounce Around Rentals, Reddex Industries, Team Office and Pipers Printing.  Hallrich, Inc., also known as “Pizza Hut” came on board for the first time and provided over 80 pizzas for our event.  With our sponsors and 75 other partners we were able to reach out to approximately 1,500 children. 

In the fall of 2010 we received a donation from a private donor to use for our daily operation.  This donation allowed us to replace our walk-in freezer and walk-in cooler.  We tripled our storage space and made the job of our volunteers easier.  This project would be completed in the Spring of 2011.  We would like to say a special thanks to the private donors who made this improvement possible.  We also erected a large wooden cross in the lobby of our facility.  This created an area where individuals who visit our center could fill out a prayer request card and then nail it to the cross to signify “giving it all to God”.

In November we partnered with the Southern Park Mall for our Christmas Distribution this year.  They willingly let us set up a tree with “Wish Bulbs” in their Food Court.  Mall visitors were encouraged to take a bulb, purchase the toy listed and return the unwrapped item to the Work ‘N Gear store.  We collected over 400 toys alone from this partnership.  We also were blown away by our fellow Greenford Christian Church members who graciously donated over 1,300 toys to our “Toy Land”.  Overall, we reached out to 1,300 children and along with other partners distributed over 2,600 toys plus hundreds of bonus items. 

We wrapped up 2010 by reaching out to over 45,000 individuals in our community just through our food pantry by supplying them with free clothing and groceries. 

The Big Reach Center of Hope’s mission is dedicated to providing the resources and opportunities to help low-income and underserved individuals and families in the MahoningValley and surrounding communities move toward self sufficiency through education and training. Providing them with hope by meeting both their tangible and spiritual needs and recognizing the dignity and beauty of every person that comes through the doors.

Our Programs

At the Big Reach Center of Hope we have many programs that are currently on going. The food and clothing distribution is one of our largest programs. Food and clothing distribution takes place at the Center of Hope every Tuesday and Thursday. We distribute free food and clothing to area families and individuals that are in need in the local and surrounding communities. Families are eligible to come to the Center of Hope once a month and must meet all income requirements in order to participate.

Some of the programs at the Center of Hope occur once a year such as Big Reach Easter which takes place at The Big Reach Center of Hope. This event takes place during our regular food and clothing distribution days. Families coming in to the Center of Hope can receive Easter baskets for their children ages birth thru 12 years starting four weeks prior to Easter. The Big Reach Back to School program offers school aged children the opportunity to receive a book bag, school supplies and new clothes to help prepare them to go back to school. Families attending this event can also receive food, used clothing, fresh produce, haircuts and free spinal checks. We provide an information tent that consists of organizations and their representatives from the valley to talk to families and provide them with knowledge of assistance available to them.

Big Reach Christmas takes place four weeks prior to Christmas. During this time we distribute new toys to children, gifts to our senior citizens, turkeys and food boxes for the holidays. Families and individuals coming to The Big Reach Center of Hope are able to take part in this during their monthly visit.

We have also partnered with Operation Blessing out of Virginia. They deliver us semi truck loads of non perishable foods at no charge to us. We are a distribution site for them. Through this blessing we are now able to distribute to several other small food pantries in Mahoning and Columbiana counties. These food pantries come to our warehouse facility and pick up their food. We are not only reaching out to area families, we are reaching out to other pantries also.

The accomplishments of The Big Reach Center of Hope can be seen by the many ways that the Center of Hope is working and partnering with other organizations to reach out to the MahoningValley and surrounding communities to give families and individuals who need a helping hand.  As the need for assistance continues to grow, so must we, and by partnering with other organizations we are able to reach out to give hope to those in need.

The Future

We are amazed where God has brought the Big Reach ministry so we will look to the future while focusing on Him!  We will continue reaching out to individuals and families with food and clothing.  We will also continue educating our families in areas of nutrition and wellness as well as reaching out to them spiritually by letting them know “God is in Control” and that they matter to God and they matter to us!

Future plans for the Center of Hope will be to build an addition to our current warehouse that would allow us to reach out to more food pantries as well as underserved families in Northeast Ohio.  We would like to build a room that would allow a specific place for our classes to meet as well as additional work space for students from local schools who volunteer during the week. 

The Big Reach ministry is God’s vision and we will follow His lead in to the future.  He has provided and will continue to provide whether it’s our warehouse addition, a classroom, an extension to the parking lot, a medical clinic or a shelter for women and children, we know that “God is in control” and He will take us exactly where He wants us to go.

The Big Reach Center of Hope is a unique place because when we started with this vision in 2004 we had nothing-no money, no support and no experience. With every step we have taken God has provided the resources and partners that we have needed to be where we are today.

Every time our numbers increased we always had enough to make sure that every family and individual received what they needed to get by. Even though we are a ministry of the Greenford Christian Church we are not solely funded by the church. The community helps to fund us as well.

Whether it is through a smile, a hug, an encouraging word or a box of food with no strings attached, we are simply here to give our families hope as well as show them that they matter to God and to us. What makes The Big Reach Center of Hope special is found in the last part of our mission statement. We treat families and individuals that come in to the Center of Hope with dignity and we recognize the beauty of each person.

We have come from a vision in 2004 to where we are now and in such a short time, we have been able to reach out and give hope to thousands. The Center of Hope will always be a place where families feel safe, loved and most importantly, be treated with respect.