David Vorpagel and Pastor Cathy Harris of Faith Lutheran Church present a check to Esther Corn of The Gleaning House.

PICKENS — For the fifth time, the annual yard sale of Faith Lutheran Chapel met its goal to help fund the Gleaning House.

Now feeding 350 families weekly, the Gleaning House is in great need of a larger walk-in freezer to help store meat. With $13,000 needed to purchase the freezer, the Gleaning House has only $10,000 available to date. The current freezer space was adequate in the past, but with the cut backs in the government food programs and the elimination of the emergency food assistance program for people, the Gleaning House cannot supply the needs for the increased requests.

After passing the $1,500 goal for the Gleaning House, all remaining monies were available to share with Mary’s House, Back Pack Snacks, Family Promise, Happy Gifts and the Humane Society.

Yard sale items were donated by members and friends of the congregation and with the support of community shoppers it was again a very successful project. At its beginning, Faith’s congregation knew it could not meet the many financial needs of our community’s charities with just the church’s budget. The yard sale was begun to help meet our responsibility in caring for others. From a beginning goal of $1000 to this year’s very successful total, it is hoped life can be made easier for others in need.