A Mom and Pop Store Uplifted by the Spirit

A Mom and Pop Store Uplifted by the Spirit

By Vivian Reed

 I’d been volunteering at the Monday night tutoring program at Covenant Presbyterian Church for four years, but that night I noticed a definite change in the mood around the place. I had gotten used to the high energy confusion before the tutoring sessions started each week. Usually, the kids were hurrying to the Fellowship Hall for a few bites of dinner before the kitchen closed or darting out to the gate to watch for their tutors pulling up in the parking lot or running around frantically looking for their backpacks. But now, the children were clustered around one window in the church courtyard—focused, cooperative, businesslike. What had happened?

The short answer was “a snack shop.” However, to understand how this unorthodox small business venture blossomed in the heart of an inner city church required more than a short answer.  I talked with Reverend Adele Langworthy, one of the pastors of Covenant Presbyterian Church, to better understand how the snack shop evolved within the supportive structure of Covenant’s outreach program. In keeping with her direct and informal style, she asked that I call her Adele.

Located on the edge of downtown Long Beach, California, Covenant shares the neighborhood with a mix of businesses, service agencies and apartments housing low-income, minority families. The facility has three large buildings surrounding a landscaped courtyard, but this spacious, welcoming setting was often deserted except for Sunday services. Then, Adele, along with a few dedicated church members, decided to reach out to the community. They started to open up some of the rooms and the outdoor play area to children in the neighborhood for after school activities and homework help.

With the support of volunteers from the church and other more affluent congregations in the area, the program expanded into the Marguerite Kiefer Education Center (MKEC), a non-profit organization. The response to the after school program continued to grow, averaging almost 100 children in attendance each week. MKEC employed people from the neighborhood as education aides, served free dinners for students coming to the tutoring program, and even sponsored field trips as incentives for good student behavior.

The Monday night tutoring program, another MKEC project, attracted volunteers from all over the city. Each volunteer made a commitment to work one-on-one with a child during the course of a school year. In addition to helping the children complete specific school assignments, the volunteer tutors also encouraged good behavior and good study habits.

Adele started a networking group to involve the parents of the children who regularly attended MKEC in decision-making. “They said we want to help but we don’t have money to donate,” she told me. “Once, while we were talking about the food their children ate, we realized that many of them went to the mini-mart down the street for snacks. One thing led to another, and we realized that if we had snacks here, the children would get them here. If we bought in bulk and offered items at the same price as the mini-mart, the proceeds could go to MKEC. They all loved the idea.” The results have been gratifying – the snack shop brings in about $250 a week.

Locating a snack shop within the MKEC facility had several built-in advantages. Children could easily get snacks without walking very far and interrupting their studies for long. The shop was open during MKEC hours for the children’s convenience. Parents felt reassured by the integrity of the church and encouraged their children to get snacks there. Since the snack shop was staffed by neighborhood volunteers, the customers knew who they were getting things from. In fact, they often lived under the same roof with them. It had the comfortable, welcoming feel of an old-fashioned mom and pop store uplifted by the endorsement of honest, godly people.

“There’s a definite sense of community. It’s a place to hang out and meet up,” Adele said. “The mothers who volunteer love being able to provide a role model for their children of working and helping. The older children help too. They don’t get paid, but they gain in self esteem.” Derrick, a young man who grew up in the MKEC program, gives now generously gives of his time to keep the shop running smoothly.

Reflecting Adele’s faith-inspired service orientation, the shop has profited by doing good. “At first, we had the popular sugary snacks only, but now we’re sneaking in more nutritious choices and they’re catching on,” she told me. “The children value the food more when they pay for it. They don’t waste as much. They see that food means money.”

I recognized that change in attitude on the night when I first witnessed the children at the snack shop window. They seemed calm and self-assured in this simple exchange of spare change for snacks. In the relationships between the children and their tutors, the young people often struggled to find common ground with these virtual strangers from affluent and highly educated backgrounds, worlds that these children had never experienced. Out of the confines of their immediate families, they were forced to grapple with the unspoken barrier in America between the privileged and the impoverished. The snack shop offered a haven where they knew where they stood. You pays your money and you makes your choice. What could be more American than that?

The snack shop stocks items in a wide range of prices to accommodate all budgets. “We have single small pieces of candy like Tootsie Rolls for a penny, so everyone can afford something,” Adele said. “We don’t want to create a divide between the haves and the have-nots.” 

Some of the volunteers at the snack shop have gone on to be hired as paid employees of MKEC. One found a full-time job elsewhere. Adele is pleased with the on-the-job training provided to snack shop volunteers. “They are learning valuable job skills, but I wish we could provide more training,” she said and explained that MKEC is pursuing funding to hire a manager for the snack shop, which would include provisions for more training in customer service and other standard business practices.

Under the watchful eye of Adele and other experienced MKEC employees, the snack shop has not suffered from theft or vandalism. The volunteers regulate each other in maintaining honesty through respect to the church’s benevolence and a sense of self-worth enhanced by their participation in the program. “We do have to be very strict about having only three people in the stock room,” Adele pointed out. “And we lock the cash in a safe every night.” Rather than taking items, some parents even donate food and beverages when they can afford to.

The parents networking group continued to be an active partner in expanding the snack shop’s inventory. Once the initial stock of candy and chips proved to be reliable money-makers, the parents began noticing that their children still went to the mini-mart for fruit-flavored slush drinks. “We came up with the idea of a shaved ice machine,” Adele recalled. “It’s cheaper and easier to maintain.” Even so, the $2,000 purchase was risky. The parents alleviated some of the risk by encouraging their children to get cups of shaved ice at the snack shop rather than slush drinks at the mini-mart. Some even tested which flavors would most appeal to the kids and experimented with methods to imitate the slushy texture of the mini-mart’s drink. The machine should be paid for by the end of the year.

The Cuddle Café was another offshoot of the parents’ desire to be involved with their children at MKEC. The infant/toddler Sunday school room was opened up for mothers with preschool age children to spend time while their older children completed homework at MKEC. The toddlers could play with toys already housed there or they could participate in craft projects and story-times. The mothers could play with their children, socialize with each other and enjoy flavored coffee and other hot drinks offered through the snack shop. Items from the snack shop were also available at church events like game nights and movie nights.

The success of the snack shop inspired other fundraising efforts too. Mothers who had volunteered at MKEC got together to make tamales during the Christmas season last year. The tutors and members of the church responded enthusiastically. This year, tamales will be offered in November and December to spread out the delivery period and make things less hectic. Parents also hold rummage sales in the church parking lot three times a year (the maximum allowed by the city) and donate part of the sales to MKEC.

Picking up on their parents’ enthusiasm, students have raised hundreds of dollars through candy drives and by braiding colored thread into bracelets and displaying them at a local art fair. “The children are so proud of the snack shop,” Adele told me. “They want a sign on the window in the worst way, but we’re still in the process of designing it. For them it will be a validation, something real that they can take pride in.”

They have so much to be proud of. The hard work, cooperation, ingenuity and initiative of their parents supported by the tireless management and organization of Adele and others on the MKEC staff have created a very unique combination of entrepreneurship and community development. The commitment of parents to get involved in funding their children’s education center has created an innovative way to funnel money into programs and activities that directly benefit themselves and their families – money that was once paid out to a distant, faceless corporation.

In the process, solutions to other problems emerged almost miraculously. Nutritious snack options are now available to their children. Adults and children have learned to respect their own hard work and that of others as they keep the snack shop going day by day. Mothers who were isolated in their homes with small children have found opportunities to make friends and learn job skills that have led to paying jobs while their children study nearby.

The education center and the church have also been enriched by the snack shop. As tutors hang out with students and parents around the order window, they are drawn closer as friends and equals. Tutors and church-goers have also been drawn into the community as they order tamales or browse the rummage sales organized by the neighborhood parents. What before had been an act of charity toward the needy has now become neighborly connection. Like at the old-fashioned mom and pop store, the no-frills ambience and the obvious fellowship at the snack shop draws everyone a little closer. They come as customers, but they leave as friends.

BIOGRAPHY: Vivian Reed lives in Long Beach, California, with her husband and two sons, but she grew up in Virginia, and has lived in three other states. She has worked in public and academic libraries for over 30 years. As a freelance writer, she has had many stories and poems published as well as two plays produced. She is proud to be a member of the Board of Directors of the Marguerite Kiefer Education Center and looks for ways to share the inspiring stories of the tutors and students who have been transformed by their time at MKEC.