"We saw the need," Sorensen said.

POUR officially was incorporated June 24, born out of a men's group that met weekly to do minor home repairs for widows and single women who couldn't afford the costs of hiring someone to do the job. They called the group POUR because that's what they hope to do: "Pour back into the community," Sorensen said.

The organization's first official charitable act came Thursday, when group members met at J.J. Harris Elementary School to distribute a truckload of food from a mobile food pantry to needy children and their families.

POUR plans to do a series of mobile food pantries, especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The group is focusing on children at three elementary schools, J.J. Harris, Fowler Drive and Howard B. Stroud, Sorensen said. More than 90 percent of the children at each school are eligible for free and reduced-priced lunches because their families make so little money, she said.

POUR is not just trying to get food to hungry children, according to Sorensen.

"We're trying to go one step further and feed the whole family," she said.

And their goal is to ensure families have enough food during long holiday breaks, not just during the times when school is in session, she said.  Sorensen and other group members are trying to raise about $1,150 to cover start-up costs associated with their mobile food pantry.

POUR's volunteers plan to keep operating expenses as low as possible. "The office is my notebook and my purse," she said. The less money and time they have to spend on organizational costs, the more they can use to help people in need of help, she said.

She paraphrased the English evangelist John Wesley: "Do all the good you can to all the people you can for as long as you can."

To learn more about POUR, visit the group's Web site at www.pourathens.org

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Friday, October 02, 2009

Read the article in the BluePrint Section of the Athens Banner Herald here:
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/100209/blu_499928151.shtml

Stay tuned....we have 4 more events over the next two months scheduled and we will need Volunteers & Donations to make these happen!

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