“Basically our goal here is to serve our community. People in need of food or clothing can come here. There’s no money exchanged,” Mary Geronimi said. “We turn nobody away.”

They are open from 9:30 a.m. to noon Tuesdays, 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every third Saturday.

They have about a dozen volunteers from the church who organize donations or assist “guests” that come in for help.

The ministry was founded by Ruth O’Connor Backlund in 1984, who ran it in her home until her death. Church volunteers then constructed the building at 917 Pyle Drive in Kingsford. When they outgrew that building, an addition was built onto the back.

Maranatha Messengers provides food and clothing to members of the community who are in need. (Marguerite Lanthier/Daily News photo)

Geronimi said they receive donations of clothes from the community and most of their food comes from Feeding America. Some local businesses donate bakery and bread.

“We do take donations from the community. We don’t turn any of those away either,” she said.

Church members provide the majority of the monetary donations, which used for building upkeep and utilities.

They are a small organization but they provide food and clothes for about 30 to 40 families every month, with about 20 to 30 children. The numbers can vary — in April, for example, they served about 95 people.

Geronimi indicated they have some large families they serve. “They are able to feed their children and cloth their families, so that they can save on that, and they can use it for utilities and things,” she said.

“Every year we have send in reports on how many people we serve, how much money we spent. It’s not really a business, but we have to keep track of it,” Shirley Wilton said. She is a long-time volunteer who ran the program for about 20 years until Geronimi took it over a couple years ago.

They try to make things easier for guests seeking donations. “For instance, we have homeless guests that will come in with backpacks and they can only carry so much in regards to clothes and food. We try to have things available that they can pop in a microwave; things they can just open up out of a can,” Geronimi said.

Wilton added that for clothing, sometimes it’s determined by the season. “They come in the spring and in the fall,” she said.

“Right now everybody is struggling with food prices and everything going up,” Geronimi said.

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Marguerite Lanthier can be reached at 906-774-3500, ext. 85242, or mlanthier@ironmountaindailynews.com.