Starting with Friday’s Operation Blessing, Brookhaven Outreach Ministries helps hundreds of families meet needs throughout the holiday season. This year, organization president Rev. Jerry Durr said they could use a few blessings of their own to make sure no one goes without.

For the past 27 years Brookhaven Outreach Ministries has sought to meet the needs of the people in the community in the Christian spirit. Through its weekly offering of free groceries and annual giveaways in October, November and December, the organization has touched thousands of lives to help ease burdens many people experience every day.

“We’re just trying to meet the needs of the local community to make sure no one goes without this holiday season,” Durr said.

Registration for the Thanksgiving giveaway event begins Nov. 6 and will continue for two weeks. Families preregister before the events to determine eligibility. Patrons are required to wait 60 days between large giveaways to accommodate the large number of families, meaning those who participated in Friday’s program cannot participate in the Thanksgiving event, but they can come back to BOM at Christmas. Both events are expected to have about 150 families receiving benefits.

The Thanksgiving program will be on Nov. 26 and includes vouchers to receive turkeys courtesy of Faith Presbyterian Church in Brookhaven. Registration to participate in the Christmas program begins the first weekend in December and will last for two weeks. The event that will be held Dec. 22 is one area BOM could use some help.

Durr said there are a great number of children who have eyes for presents at the Christmas giveaway program, which are unfortunately in short supply.

“We could really use some help with that,” Durr said. “[Having more toys to give out] that’d help us out tremendously.”

The main problem facing Brookhaven Outreach Ministries going into its largest programs is the need for a new compressor for the large freezer at the center. Durr said fixing the freezer will cost between $3,000 and $4,000. Right now, they have $2,000. A working freezer is crucial to the outreach, and Durr said finding the funds to fix it would be an enormous help.

The ministry could also use shopping carts and baskets for patrons to use to take their supplies, Durr said, as BOM currently has about 10 or 15 that everyone has to share — making long waits in long lines. Durr said while they have a fair amount of deliveries that come in for the events, they don’t always get to the outreach in time. Durr said the best way to help is to call the day of an event to see what they might need.

For instance, BOM was 100 blankets short for Friday’s event. A local church was generous enough to see the need and offered to sponsor the rest of the blankets, but Outreach Ministries had already purchased the blankets before the church could help. The extra blankets will now be given at Thanksgiving’s program.

Despite that shortage, the kickoff to the holiday season, Operation Blessing, was beautiful and went smoothly, Durr said. The outreach was able to meet the needs of and minister to everyone who came out.

“They help feed a lot of needy people, people who are out of work or just people who are in need — these people are really trying to help,” Joseph Tanner, 26, said. “I’ve been coming here for two years back and forth, they’ve always given enough, and they always seem to help you when you come here. They give you more than what you need, and they don’t mind you coming back.”

Another patron of BOM Operation Blessing, Kimberly Smith, 30, said the organization’s mission is a good one because there are a lot of families who are in need of the supplies and products offered there.

Many of those are older folks who might not be able to make all ends meet with small Social Security checks, said Shirley McDaniel, 69.

“It’s a blessing. It helps a great deal with food. If it wasn’t for the Outreach probably a lot of people would go hungry,” she said.

For more information about how to get involved or donate to Brookhaven Outreach Ministries, call 601-833-1350.