We are an emergency food program.  While we are glad to be able to help, we cannot be a regular source of food.  Since we are partially funded by federal grants and United Way, we are required to keep records of all those whom we serve.   We base our emergency food program on need and clients income. We serve clients who meet the limits we set on total income for household. Remember many are children, elderly, disabled and working poor.

MUCH MORE THAN JUST A FOOD PROGRAM
From our beginning in 1986, the volunteers at ACCA have tried to treat each client household as a special and unique case. We maintain a computerized record for each client, noting their need and circumstances, size of family, income source, costs of living and extraordinary expenses, and include comments made by the interviewer for each visit. We make every effort to assist our clients to find other resources in our community. ACCA volunteers work with them to make knowledgeable referrals to other agencies and programs that can help with their long-term needs. We also require families using our services more than three times in a year to attend budgeting and nutrition sessions designed to help them learn how to help themselves.

Through our connections with many community partners we have helped clients with job searches and referrals, access to medical assistance, assistance with disability applications, qualifying for tax credits and tax refunds, energy assistance, and connecting with various recovery programs. Many also qualify for help with their prescription medications from national drug companies.

Our interviewers are a source of critical information as well as encouragement and compassion. Frequently, people thank us for giving them vital information and direction that can really help them to resolve their problems and issues. While we do not provide professional counseling or therapy, we do break down barriers, overcome resistance and despair, and provide a source of community love and caring that can inspire people who may have given up hope to make new progress. And just knowing that this service is provided as an outreach by so many local churches working together helps people to become interested in returning again to their own religious roots and beliefs. ACCA always has Bibles from a local donor on hand to give to clients who request them.

We are composed of churches of many different faiths but we do not evangelize for our own sectarian purposes. We seek only to serve those in need with heartfelt empathy, spiritual and emotional encouragement, and to simply be an example of Christian love and community concern for them.

WE ARE PROUD TO BE A UNITED WAY AGENCY

For the past 18 years, ACCA has been a member agency of our local United Way. Every year we provide United Way with a complete report of our operations including a certified audit. Employers and employees of local firms are encouraged to support the annual United Way campaign and may, if they wish, designate ACCA as a primary recipient of their monthly donations through United Way. The United Way campaign reaches all major employers plus city, county, state and federal offices. Many independent businesses and offices, banks, school districts, and self-employed people also participate strongly in the United Way effort. We are both proud and grateful to our local United Way organization for their financial support and for their help in enabling our agency to maintain high fiscal and operating standards.

CURRENT BOARD OF DIRECTORS: