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For 25 years, the Daily Bread program of the Christian Service Center has served a nourishing noon time meal to the needy of our community. To celebrate this exciting milestone, the Center will hold a community celebration on Wednesday, April 5th from 11:30am to 2:00pm at the Downtown Campus. Daily Bread served its first meal on July 1, 1975, in Downtown Orlando. Fifteen years later, the 1,000,000th meal was served (May1990). With the success of the program in Orlando, a second operation was opened in Kissimmee in September 1990. A few months later, April 1991, a third operation opened in Ocoee. In the Spring of 1999, our 2,000,000th meal was served. Daily Bread provides not only a noontime meal to the hurting and homeless of our community, but clothing, legal aid and counseling as well. Serving the communities of Orlando, Kissimmee, and Ocoee, are a testimony to the generosity and compassion of the people in Central Florida. We hope to attract over 1,000 individuals to this exciting event, including Daily Bread clients, staff, and volunteers; local church and business organizations; media representatives and government officials. We will serve hotdogs, hamburgers, popcorn, and ice cream. Please make plans to stop by to enjoy a hotdog at our celebration! Daily Bread says "Thank You" Daily Bread of Orlando would like to give a special "thank you" to St. Andrew Catholic Church whose members have been volunteering at our Daily Bread program since 1975. For 24 years, parishioners have spent one week each year serving the homeless of our community. Oakland Presbyterian Church recently donated a new freezer to the Daily Bread of Ocoee program and has tiled the front waiting room area of the Center. The Christian Service Center would like to thank the congregation of Oakland Presbyterian for their support.
SOUP‘R SUNDAY:
The Christian Service Center recently received this letter from Thomas Sanders, Jr. who was a resident of Fresh Start in 1991. We want to share this letter with you today... To: Fresh Start, Ministry of the Christian Service Center, Orlando, Florida Praise God for all of you who opened the doors and rolled out the welcome mat of the Fresh Start Program. My life is completely and wholly restored. By the Grace of God, I now live a drug free life. Yes, I was there. Right where you are sitting. I worked those day labor pools to support my addiction every day. I lived in what ever was abandoned: house, car, truck, underpass, bushes. You name the place, I slept there, just to keep from spending my money on anything but crack. I think most of you know what I am talking about. I was homeless, a transient. I am writing to say thanks be to God, my Heavenly Father. By the Blood of his Son Jesus Christ, I was Saved. The Blood of Jesus washed my system clean of the need for crack. The blood of Jesus, there is no other power I know that could have saved a wretch like me. In my last days, before entering the door of 816 West Central Boulevard I was literally weary & wounded. I hadn't slept in about 3 days. You know, I was "chasing Jason", going non-stop trying to find that next hit, thinking it was like the first one. Trying to ignore the pain I was physically in. You see not only was I at the curb of life, I was rock bottom, below the curb. My feet blistered very bad, 50 to 60 sores and blisters. This made walking very difficult. I didn't know it then, but God was trying to save me from the life I was in. For all the things I had gone through for 1½ years on the streets of Orlando, God said to me "I will give you rest." My rest came through the Fresh Start Program. After going to the Hospital by the Paramedics there on Central Blvd., where they cleaned my sores wrapped my feet in bandages, and gave me antibiotics, they asked where they would take me. I said 816 W. Central Blvd., Christian Service Center Fresh Start Program. Your doors were open to me, and I thank you. God has placed you there for a reason. I am a prime example of that reason. Of how a crumbled life can be restored. By the grace of God, and a program like the Fresh Start, I am here today, an active member of The Greater First Full Gospel Baptist Church, where the pastor is Bishop Tavis L. Grant. I am working a job that pays me $30,000 a year. God is Good. He is so good that just recently He has spoke to my Heart concerning I give back to others what he has given me, LIFE. So, my Pastor & I are in the process of starting a ministry similar to Fresh Start, it's name will be The Damascus Road. May God richly bless the Fresh Start Program. For if you hadn't been there when I submitted my life to God, if you hadn't been there when I said "Lord, take me, use me, mold me to what you want of me;" IF YOU HADN'T BEEN THERE, I WOULD BE DEAD. God Bless all who have heard my words Yours in Christ, 1999 IN REVIEW The Christian Service Center for Central Florida, Inc. has been recognized for outstanding achievement by the Community Services Network, Heart of Florida United Way, The Brookdale Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Chamberlain Foundation. The Center was also recognized for their support of the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, the National Day of Prayer and the Thanksgiving Prayer Breakfast. FRESH START 5,600 hours of client support was provided for 64 men; each man stayed an average of 141 days. 30 churches and support groups (one for each day of the month) have kept this program alive and viable. Without their regular support it would not be possible to have this program. As Paul says, "we thank God for you every day!" FAMILY & EMERGENCY SERVICES Besides the 9,260 people we served through pantry items, clothing, financial assistance and referrals to other agencies, our staff answered 20,600 telephone inquiries from potential clients at our three branches (Downtown, Ocoee, Winter Park). . DAILY BREAD Overall, 99,447 individual meals were served in three locations (Downtown, Ocoee, & Kissimmee). In April we celebrated our 2,000,000th meal. This year we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Daily Bread. HOTEL MINISTRY 4,409 attended worship services raising almost $12,000 through weekly offerings. In August, we celebrated 25 years of Hotel Ministry! COMMUNITY BASED LONG TERM CARE MINISTRY More than 40,000 hours of service were provided to more than 560 unduplicated clients. In September, Share the Care Center opened next door to our administrative building at 800 W. Central Blvd. and was built to serve up to 34 clients each day. WEST ORANGE MINISTRIES More than 8,400 client hours were provided to 37 families in the West Orange Community. With funding from the Heart of Florida United Way, we began serving Daily Bread at West Orange on Mondays in August, serving four days per week. After a few months, we began serving five days per week! ITEMS NEEDED The Fresh Start program would like to begin collecting tools for their new "tool bank". The idea is that men who enroll in the program would have the tools needed for industrial jobs. The Center is also in need of a digital camera and a vacuum cleaner. If you can help with these needs, please call the Center at 407-425-2523. Revised: January 18, 2008 |
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