SUMTER, S.C. — A food pantry and financial literacy service is coming to Sumter to meet a need in the community.
“I want to serve everybody,” Services of Hope Sumter Program Manager Brandon Stukes explains.
Born in Sumter, Stukes is working to give back to the community that’s raised him.
“Our mission is to serve low to moderate income families and provide them with the resources that they have been denied as far as housing, food and financial literacy,” Stukes details about the non-profit, which got its start in Texas during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Through the last three years we really saw that need,” co-founder Doris Prescott remembers. “So that's where it came from.”
Prescott and her husband created the non-profit in Dallas, eventually expanding it to other places in Texas, then Arizona, Oklahoma and now Sumter to help with first-time home buying.
“We're able to continue to work with them on financial management so that they can get used to those home payments,” Prescott explains. “You know, just being able to be there financially so we can learn how to budget more.”
The organization offers a first-time homebuyer class, which teaches about down payment assistance and connects participants with virtual housing counselors.
The non-profit also aims to help battle food insecurity with an in-house food pantry and mobile food service.
“Quality food gives you a better start,” Stukes shares. “When you eat better, you feel better. You feel better, you live. You live better, you're doing better.”
For Stukes, bridging resources with fellow Sumterites is “amazing.”
“Growing up, these resources, I didn't know a lot of these resources even existed,” Stukes elaborates. “So just to find out that they exist, then I could pass on that information to others older and younger, especially the younger ones that's coming up, you could go ahead and pass this information on to them and keep pushing into their brain that way once they get older, they already know what's going on. They know the stuff, they know the process, and they'll be able to live a positive, productive life.”
Services of Hope is officially launching the program on Oct. 14 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. To access resources, donate food items or volunteer with the organization, you can visit the program’s website or call Stukes’ office at 803-717-0004.
“We’re looking for volunteers to help with any aspect whether it's from the food, the housing, we're looking for volunteers,” Stukes says. “Donations, if you could donate to our pantry, we would definitely appreciate that. That way we could be able to provide these resources to those that really need it.”