How COVID-19 changed the Compassion Ministry of Milan.

Compassion Ministry of Milan

Dave: Dave Sullivan here with People Driven Credit Union, I have a special guest…

Roxanne: I am Roxanne Bryant of Milan Compassion Ministry.

Dave: Roxanne how long have you been with the ministry?

Roxanne: I have been with this ministry since 1999, about 21 years.

Dave: Good for you, can you tell me a little bit about what makes the ministry so successful.

Roxanne: It took years in the making, we have had many administrators that had done wonderful jobs, worked hard, work themselves to death. What we decided to do is, have a core team that makes all the decisions. The core teams are made up of different churches and from different people just in the community.

We make all the necessary decisions for the Milan Compassion Ministry, some take the administration part, some takes the ordering part, others take the district distribution part of it and then me. I’m like the stop sign, okay-go-you-go

Dave: You are the traffic director.

Roxanne: I’m the traffic director ,I’ve had the longevity and history but it is so successful because so many people are involved their hearts. You don’t have to be part of the church to be involved,  you do have to admit that this is a Jesus ministry. It started out Jesus’s ministry and it always will be as long as you can commit to that, Our door is open come on in.

Dave: What has changed over the last few months, how has it changed the people you serve?

Roxanne: Our operation is 100% different now.  We’ve done a total turnabout, we never had drive through food  before and now we have to do drive-thru. We are servicing anywhere from 100 to 150 families every weekend. We have streamlined  our operation so well that now we can service eighty-five families in an hour. We are only open from 10:00 am to noon. We get everybody through within that period of time.

We always keep the social distancing up and we have people stay in their cars we try to serve them as best we can. Most of our stuff is pre-packed where before we were a choice pantry they were able to walk through and choose what they wanted.

That has totally changed

Dave: Have you seen a dramatic increase in need?

Roxanne: Need has dramatically increased, we have never seen this load of people and this short amount of time. Normally we service Washington County in Milan school district. Now we’re getting people from Oakland County, Wayne County, we’re getting people from all over.

Dave: If people wanted to reach out and help the Milan Compassion Ministry what would be the best way for them to reach out to you?

Roxanne: The best way to reach us is through our Facebook page. It is the Compassion Ministry of Milan Facebook Page. We have two ladies that service the page constantly. They will get in touch with you right away donations are always appreciated. We do not take donations of clothes right now because we can’t hand them out. Monetary donations are always welcomed.

Dave: In that spirit of that, I do have a donation from the people of People Driven Credit Union, the Board of Directors, and Renee DeMarco the CEO.

Roxanne: Thank you so much you guys have been so good to us.