2024 was anything but ordinary for us here at The Beacon of Bourbon County. The Beacon celebrated its 40th year of serving Bourbon County and takes pride in reflecting on all the ways it has helped the residents of this amazing community. Not only does The Beacon provides food to those in need, but we are also the hub of several Bourbon County programs such as the family swim pass program hosted by Bourbon County Coalition and the Shoe Voucher program hosted by Community Christian Church where we distributed 173 vouchers to clients for their children going into school.
The Hack Foundation and Bourbon County Coalition provide funding to The Beacon to help Bourbon County residents in financial emergencies with utilities, rent, and a few select other necessities. This year we processed an abundance of financial applications totaling $26,033.02 helping 256 adults and 213 children.
As much of the country faced the rising costs of goods as did The Beacon not only did it cost us several thousands more to buy the same staples, we always have purchased we also saw a major increase in income-eligible families. In January this year we had 254 qualified families; in those families were 344 adults and 238 children. Looking into the systems we run at the end of December we had 497 qualified families totaling 704 adults and 470 children. As you see we had a major rise in families, 243 new families to be exact. Clients are allowed to pick up their food packages twice a month. Reflecting over the whole year we served 3,816 grocery orders providing food to 5,457 adults and 3,191 children.
We continue to be the recipient of Feeding America donations from our local Wal-Mart. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we receive a variety of goods including produce, meat, bakery items, and some miscellaneous salvaged items. We allow individuals to come in and shop through these items after 10:45 am on the delivery days.
The Beacon could absolutely not function on this level without the continued support from our community. From the numerous volunteers to the continuous donations from individuals, businesses, churches, groups, and civic organizations. In fear of leaving someone out, I cannot individually name all of them. Our deepest gratitude and appreciation extend out to all who make our mission of helping others a successful one.
Lastly, we would like to thank all those who adopted families, donated funds or toys, and helped support Bikes for Tykes. This year the Fort Scott Fire Department donated all monetary donations to The Beacon to help make sure every family signed up received gifts for their children. We recently ended another successful Adopt-A-Child program. Last year we helped 77 families, this year The Beacon and our amazing community brought the joy of Christmas into 113 Bourbon County homes, this includes 460 individuals. A big thank you to Community Christian Church for allowing us to use their building and resources to continue this mission. A big Thank You to the local Elks Lodge for distributing Holiday meal bundles to 127 families this year, this helped ensure 179 clients of The Beacon did not go without a Christmas dinner.
We look forward to another year of serving Bourbon County and its residents in their times of need. Thank you for making our mission possible!
David Gillen, Director
Ashley Heathman, Assistant Director
Destiny Holderfield, Food Administrator