Agape, a nonprofit food pantry and poverty services organization in Warrenton, has been awarded over $706,000 to improve its services for people who are food insecure or at risk of homelessness.

The funding for Agape was announced in March as part of the Missouri Department of Economic Development’s Community Revitalization Grant Program. Over the next three years, the funds will help Agape establish a mobile food pantry service, improve its food pantry facility on Highway W, and assist community members who are struggling to pay for their housing.

Agape Executive Director Michelle Bernth explained that the grant funds will come as reimbursements for eligible expenses, meaning that payments will only be received after the nonprofit spends the equivalent amount of money on its services.

Bernth said a large portion of the funding distribution will go toward the mobile food pantry, a refrigerated truck capable of visiting communities where access to food resources can be a struggle.

“That will allow us to serve more rural parts of the county and assist elderly and disabled residents, who we know have difficulty accessing the brick-and-mortar food pantry,” Bernth commented. “That’s something we’ve had in our strategic plan for a while now, but haven’t had the resources to make happen. We’re really excited to be able to bring that resource to areas of this county.”

Some of the grant funding will also go toward stocking the actual food supplies for the mobile pantry, but Bernth said Agape will have to build up its financial support to keep the mobile service going once the grant money is used up.

Another chunk of funding will be used to make facility improvements and buy equipment for Agape’s building at 28855 Legion Trail Drive, located off of Highway W in Warrenton. The improvements will allow the food pantry to begin receiving distribution trucks from bulk food suppliers, which can cheaply supplement the pantry’s other sources of food.

Agape hasn’t previously been able to work with bulk food distributors because the companies refuse to deliver unless the receiving facility meets several requirements that Agape currently falls short of, such as exterior paving and interior receiving equipment, Bernth explained.

The last split of Agape’s $706,000 grant will go toward the nonprofit’s emergency housing assistance program. The program pays for temporary housing for homeless people, but also seeks to intervene to prevent families from becoming homeless in the first place.

“It’s cheaper and more effective to help a family stay in their housing, than to allow that family to fall into homelessness and then try to rehouse them,” Bernth explained. “If we can inject assistance before a family at risk of homelessness actually falls off that cliff, we can keep them in safe and stable housing. We can keep their kids in school. We can do all these things that give them a much higher chance of getting back on track.”

The money awarded to Agape is part of $94 million in community revitalization grants announced by the Missouri Department of Economic Development in March. Funding for the grants comes from the federal government’s 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

“These grant awards will make a real difference for local communities. Projects funded through this program will benefit Missourians all across our state by supporting critical services and addressing local needs,” Missouri Gov. Mike Parson stated in a press release announcing the awards.