Food and clothing are necessities of life. An occasional bicycle is an added blessing!
‘Feeding America’s Hungry Children’ is the main goal of Knoxville’s Center of Hope Ministries. Since August 1999, the Center of Hope Ministries has fed over 200,000 needy people in East Tennessee. They essentially provide an outreach program twice each week to individuals requiring food and clothing. During their times of distribution, on Tuesday and Friday from 10 AM to 2 PM, they also offer prayers and counseling.
“We’re moved with compassion,” says Center of Hope Ministries Director Lisa Latham. “I’m living my dream! At the age of nine I often invited small groups of children in my neighborhood to talk about Jesus. I knew the feeling of being hungry and poor. As a youth, I was raised in a four-room house with nine children. At the age of eighteen I began to have a passion to help the poor, and filled the back of my car with food and toys and headed into the mountains around Campbell County, TN. I always prayed that I could help these children in a bigger way. The incentive of the Center of Hope Ministries is to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of people. Everyone here works together to feed the hungry, and bring hope, through Jesus Christ, to a lost and dying world.”
In addition to their weekly food and clothing distribution, the Center of Hope Ministries also has several annual major outreach events helping them to minister to needy families in East Tennessee, on the Cumberland Plateau, through the Appalachian Mountains, and into West Virginia.
Making the school year a little brighter, the Center of Hope Ministries offers a ‘Back to School’ program where they offer new clothes, shoes, backpacks, and school supplies to needy children. “Our heart motivation is for every child to walk in confidence with a good self-image,” Latham explains, “rather than possibly facing embarrassment with old, worn-out clothing, or used school supplies.”
Each year at Thanksgiving, the outreach center prepares a grand feast for hundreds of needy families at their Center of Hope Ministries facility located at 2612 Pickel Lane in the Marbledale Park community of South Knoxville.
Latham explains, “We are a non-profit organization, and our vision is to feed, clothe, and better educate people in need. We strive to bring them from a cycle of poverty to a cycle of prosperity. Our objective is to bring hope to children and parents, where there seems to be none. And many families have successfully come out of a poverty situation.”
At Christmas, the Center of Hope Ministries distributes thousands of toys and bicycles to needy children in East Tennessee, Appalachia, and the Cumberland Plateau. “This Christmas we took four semi-trailer trucks full of food, clothing, hygiene items and toys to 5,000 needy children,” Latham smiles. “It is so exciting when the children see our huge convoy of trucks and volunteers coming up the road for these awesome all-day events. Our goal, every Christmas, is to give away 1,000 new bicycles and safety helmets to those kid’s who have never owned a bike before. Just to see the smiles on their faces is priceless, as their dreams of a shiny, new bike comes true.”
The Easter holiday brings additional celebrations each year, as new outfits of clothing, shoes, and Easter baskets are distributed by the Center of Hope Ministries to hundreds of needy children in the local area. “We usually organize a fun-filled day of awesome games for the children,” Latham reflects, “and it’s always a joy to see the happiness in their little faces as they receive their Easter outfits and goodies. It’s such a blessing. Everyday of the year I continue living my dream!”
To learn more about supporting the Center of Hope Ministries with a monetary gift, or to volunteer your services, you can personally contact Lisa Latham at 546-9110; or Fax: 609-9751; or e-mail: www.4-hope.org.
Lisa Latham believes one person can make a difference feeding the hungry, and clothing the poor. She often quotes her favorite Scripture from Luke 6:38, where Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Needless to say, the Center of Hope Ministries outreach programs will continue providing both the physical and spiritual necessities of life to the needy, and especially focus their attention on ‘Feeding America’s Hungry Children,’ because the children will always be in need.

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