Social Services Snapshot: The Burrows Center for Help and Hope
The Salvation Army’s Burrows Center for Help and Hope is best-known for its food pantry, which fills more than 7,000 grocery orders each year. But as Tiffanie McCowin, program director for the material assistance program, acknowledged, most people don’t realize the depth and breadth of the services offered.
“We typically aren’t meeting one need,” said McCowin. “We are meeting people’s needs holistically.”
In addition to its food pantry, the Burrows Center also offers free fans during the summer to provide relief from the heat; distributes more than 6,000 backpacks and school supplies to families with school-age children every August; helps more than 3,000 families with toys, gifts and food vouchers during the Christmas season; and offers utility assistance to help individuals and families bridge the gap when times are tough.
Staff and volunteers strive to meet people where they are and connect them with services that might help them get to the next level. For example, McCowin recalled a young woman who came to the Burrows Center for food after she had lost her job. The staff also helped her write a resume, saved the resume on a flash drive for her and made her copies to take to job interviews.
Longtime volunteer Johnny Harrell knows first-hand how the Burrows Center can make a long-term positive impact. “At one time I was one of the people who came in and asked for services,” he explained. “Now I have a sense of pride, knowing I am here to help the community.”
Tim Jones, who has worked for The Salvation Army since 2001 and is the receptionist at the Burrows Center, noted that while the Burrows Center helps the community, the community also helps the center. “People give us donations. Corporations donate food. We couldn’t keep doing what we do if it wasn’t for this support,” he said.
Together the staff, volunteers and local businesses and individuals each do their part to help the community. “The Burrows Center is here to give people a second chance,” Jones said. “Like the sign on our building says, we give help and hope.”
For more information about the Burrows Center for Help and Hope, please visit our website or call 402-898-6090.