Flint Street Fellowship named Agency of Year

Founded on a prayer by a Bible study group that wanted to do something for Eureka Springs, Flint Street Fellowship has grown over the past 26 years from its original mission as a food pantry to include a clothing program and a lunch program.

While not affiliated with a church, the fellowship has set up shop in an old church at 33 N. Main in Eureka Springs. The old church building was purchased with the assistance of another Eureka Springs church. It operates the food pantry from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday and Wednesday of each week, said Pat Kasner, board president and fellowship director. The lunch program runs from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday, but participants come as early as 10 a.m. for coffee and cookies. Free clothing can be obtained anytime the operation is open, she added.

In addition, the volunteers at the fellowship operate a Back Our Kids weekend food bags program to feed hungry school children during the school year. With the aid of the Eureka Springs Rotary Club, they fill 65 bags to assist school kids, Kasner said.

The Rotary Club also helped build the kitchen and handicapped restrooms. There are approximately 30 volunteers who help with the various programs, Kasner said. A lot of the volunteers have helped for quite a few years. “Many of the volunteers get a lot more out of it than they give,” she said. “They like the people who come here.”

Kasner got her start with the fellowship when she and her husband drove the truck to pick up food at the NWA Food Bank. She became the manager at the fellowship nearly 12 years ago when no one else stepped up to take over. Elsie Johnson, one of the original founders, asked her to do it and she said yes. She later became president of the 10-member board. “Helping people and knowing this (fellowship) is part of God’s plan,” said Kasner, citing two of the reasons she enjoys working at the fellowship. “I’m doing what He wants me to do,” she added.

Half the year this is a tourist town with lots of jobs, and the other half jobs dry up, she said. The winter time is when the fellowship receives most of its business, she added. “I really feel this is the reason for having this here,” Kasner said of the fellowship’s work. “A lot of street people come through here. There is a big need for it to be sustained.”

The fellowship’s food pantry serves approximately 150 families on a monthly basis. People can come in every week if they need to, there is no limit, she said. They usually serve 25 people at each lunch, but they have seen as many as 40. Wonderful lunches are served at the fellowship, she said. Each cook works once a month and they set their own menu. They put a lot of work into it.

While the fellowship doesn’t have a fundraiser, it receives donations from people as well as churches and organizations. Also a local Scout troop helps with a food drive and monetarily. During the summer time the pantry is very blessed with items from the farmers market as well as leftover food from area banquets, Kasner said. The $1,000 food credit award for being named Agency of the Year has already been spent purchasing food, she said.

The fellowship also sponsors and hosts a community Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners that take place at the Echo Clinic’s dining room. Usually 80-100 people attend.