The Warrenton Board of Aldermen voted to continue their service agreement for $25,000 with Agape at their Nov. 19 meeting. Agape is one of the largest nonprofits in the county and provides a variety of services to those in need in the area. 

Agape Executive Director Michelle Bernth was on hand at the meeting to provide a report of the nonprofit’s work to the board. 

“I think all of you are pretty familiar with Agape and what we do,” said Bernth. “Our mission of course is fighting hunger and preventing homelessness here in Warren County.”

One of the first things she discussed was the continuing increase in visits to Agape’s food pantry. She said the number of visits they see annually has been increasing this year especially with increases in the number of visits each month. In January the pantry saw 1,131 visits, that number has increased every month but two this year, and the pantry had more than 1,500 visitors in both September and October. 

“We’ll see what’s happening this year, which is the thing that is interesting and potentially alarming, which is that every single month those numbers are increasing,” said Bernth. 

She also discussed the programs that Agape continues to provide along with some new ones that will be starting in 2025. 

The first of those was a mobile food pantry to provide more outreach to their existing food pantry for people in need in more rural parts of the county. She said they had planned on launching the mobile pantry for some time and it will be available next year as it is being funded through an ARPA grant. 

“The purpose of the mobile food pantry is to be able to reach more rural parts of the county and to be able to reach people who have a barrier to coming in to the physical food pantry,” said Bernth. 

She continued saying the program would focus on populations like the elderly and disabled as well as those who do not have adequate transportation to reach the pantry. 

“We know this is a need, we receive calls on the daily asking if we can deliver food,” said Bernth. 

She also discussed Warren County’s role in the Emergency Weather Response Shelter Network in the tri-county area. That network activates when night time temperatures will reach or dip below 20 degrees. 

Last year was the first year that one of those “warming centers” was located in Warren County at the MaryLou Center in Truesdale. This year that agreement with the city of Truesdale was renewed earlier this year and the nonprofit will continue to operate a warming shelter at the building when the network is activated. 

“When the temperatures are that low, people will die outside,” said Bernth. 

She also noted that they are always looking for more volunteers to help staff the shelter when it does open. 

Finally, she announced a partnership with the St. Louis Area Food Bank that will be launched in January. 

She said the details of the partnership, the FARMS Program, are still being worked out, but that they would be announced soon.