153 House Churches Network: Food Bank Holds Benefit Golf Tourney

Pastor Ben Hunt of the 153 House Churches Network joins Agape Distribution CEO Dr. John Geissler in announcing that Shelby County’s Combined Community Food Pantry will hold its annual benefit golf tournament at Shelby Oaks Golf Club on Thursday, April 27, 2006.

[USPRwire, Wed Apr 18 2007] Last year’s tournament was attended by over 100 people and, through individual entry fees and corporate hole sponsorships, raised over $6000 for the pantry. All proceeds from the yearly tournament go directly to purchasing food for the shelves of Agape’s food pantry.

“Four years ago, I was approached about doing a benefit golf tournament, and my initial response was that ‘well, they usually don’t work because you’re going to be asking the same group of citizens to support that tournament, year after year’”, says Shelby Oaks Golf Club director of operations Rob Fridley. “But when I heard that it was a benefit for Agape Distribution, I knew that it would work. There is a place in people’s hearts for Agape’s work. It’s special. And sure enough, this has become a pretty successful golf tournament.”

Agape’s operations director Cindy Lambert says that approximately 24,000 visits were made to the Food Pantry in 2005. The Combined Community Food Pantry is unique in that it is set up much like a grocery store, where recipients select their own food according to posted guidelines which specify the amount of each item that a recipient may receive.

Lambert believes that it is Agape’s broad base of service to the community - through both Agape’s food pantry outreach to the needy and its agency store’s support of local non-profit agencies - that is its strength. “The Food Pantry is about helping people,” says Lambert. “People who have been laid off from their jobs, people who are in need for other reasons. And our agency store helps other local non-profit agencies to more efficiently do their work to help people in our community, as well.”

Benny Scott is owner/operator of Scott M & A’s McDonald’s and Chipotle restaurant operations throughout the upper Miami Valley. He views his personal and corporate support of the annual tournament as a logical extension of the charitable work of both he and his father, Ben Scott, Sr. “The work to provide food and clothing to those who are poor has always been close to me, my father and our company”, says Scott. Scott says that his father, who owned and operated Scott M & A before passing the mantle to his son, mentored him in matters both business-oriented and personal. “It has always been close to him, and it’s close to me,“ he says. “There are not many golf tournaments around that benefit bringing food and clothing to the poor, so we wanted to step forward and support this event at a bigger level in our charitable giving.”

Shelby Oaks Golf Club again plays home to this year’s tournament, which begins at 9:00 am with a Putting Tournament. The 18-hole Tournament will begin at 10:00 am. The $55 entry fee includes 18 holes of golf, a golf cart, a meal and beverage, as well as some fun and unusual door prize drawings.

Individuals interested in entering Agape’s benefit golf tournament or businesses interested in sponsoring a hole in the tournament should contact tournament director Cindy Lambert at 498-4368 for further information.