Committee Chair: Jon Peters
HTLC Is Active in our Community. We encourage you to watch the following video featuring Pastor Scottie and Dr. David Reames as long-time member Dr. Reames gives Pastor Scottie an overview of the many programs Holy Trinity has championed and supported throughout the years here in Kingsport and the surrounding areas.
A significant amount of effort and time is put forth in Outreach by HTLC members. Shopping for and sticking food for our Sunday Meals on Wheels program, as well as maintaining the driving routes, scheduling prep teams, cook teams and delivery teams requires multiple people. Coordinating and preparing for HTLC participation in Family Promise involves setting up, recruiting volunteers to prepare & serve meals, host evening & overnight & breakfast shifts, and taking down at the conclusion of the week we host. This ministry also coordinates management, purchase & delivery of backpacks as well as setting up to collect then delivering items donated on Socks & Undies Sundays to homeless schoolchildren in the Kingsport City, TN and Dickenson County, VA school systems.
Sunday Meals on Wheels are prepared and delivered each Sunday of the 52 weeks every year to ~30+/- needy persons. Meal recipients also receive an Easter lily and a Christmas poinsettia. Sunday Meals on Wheels also provides a Pet/Furry Friend Component co-led by JoRita McMurray, Jenny Trumbo & Brenda Mooneyhan. It is the belief of this portion of our ministry that our pets are our companions, comforters in times of sorrow, cheerleaders in times of joy and unconditional souls of support. We always appreciate help to our cause to provide our Meals on Wheels recipients a way to support their animal companions. This service has been provided by HTLC to our pet-owning Sunday Meals on Wheels recipients for nearly 10 years. When a meal recipient loses a beloved pet, we grieve alongside them. We can only do what we do because of the generosity of HTLC members who love animals as much as we do and endeavor to keep these 4-legged friends fed.
Family Promise is hosted by HTLC on a regular basis multiple times each year. We typically provide a place to sleep, an evening meal and breakfast, as well as snacks. This outreach to homeless families requires volunteer members to supply the meals, set up & take down bedding & supplies, host the meals, host the evening pre-bedtime hours, as well as host overnight for seven nights in a row (Sunday evening through the following Sunday morning). During the COVID-19 pandemic, apartments were leased for the families and meals were either provided or gift cards for meals were donated.
An annual fundraiser is held by HTLC – a craft sale.
Second Harvest Food Bank receives food donated by HTLC members through our Little Red Wagon ministry. We also participate in annual food drives (i.e. Souper Boal Sunday, etc.)
Food Bags including non-perishable items are stocked and kept in a closet to be available for those hungry &/or needy people who come to the church door in need. Bags are also given to HTLC members to have available in their cars for when they encounter people in need in the community or on the street.
Salvation Army Weekend Serving Program is supported on Saturdays during the year with HTLC members volunteering to serve lunch at the Salvation Army downtown. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Salvation Army began handing out food bags at their back door, thus eliminating the need for our participation temporarily.
KCMC (Kingsport Community Ministry Center) initially required volunteer receptionists, interviewers, etc. for walk-in needy persons. During the COVID-19 pandemic, needy persons are interviewed only by appointment and by the KCMC director, thus eliminating the need for our participation temporarily.
Homeless schoolchildren in Kingsport, TN city schools and in Dickinson County, VA schools are supplied annually with backpacks and school supplies (for ~100 children), usually each August. Sometime before Christmas each year, HTLC schedules “Socks & Undies Sundays” during which hats, socks, underwear, gloves, etc. are donated and then given to homeless schoolchildren in those same two school systems. All items are donated by HTLC members and delivered to the school systems’ Homeless Schoolchildren Coordinators.
Additional outreach support is provided to Friends in Need, CASA, Sunday Meals on Wheels, Meals-On-Wheels of Kingsport, Family Promise, KCMC, Providence Medical Clinic, Kitchen of Hope, Hope Haven, Oasis, Hunger First, Salvation Army, etc.
