wfn.org | United Methodist 'Mother Teresa' gives needy a hand up

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Aug. 26, 1998        Contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
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NOTE:  A photograph is available with this story.

A UMNS News Feature
By Woody Woodrick*

JACKSON, Miss. -- At noon on the second, third and fourth Wednesday of
each month, around 400 people gather behind Pratt Memorial United
Methodist Church to receive food.

This gathering isn't a lunch-time prayer service, although many are
growing spiritually. The people standing patiently in the summer heat
come to get free food because otherwise they would likely go hungry.

For about six months, Pratt Memorial, a small, historic church in one of
Jackson's most impoverished neighborhoods, has been the distribution
center for the food program started by one of its members.

Lizzie Cooper, 61, began giving away food several years ago, after
opening a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center several blocks from
Pratt Memorial. She has been a member of Pratt Memorial for more than 40
years. 

Cooper has been likened to Mother Teresa, the late Roman Catholic nun
who ministered to the poor in Calcutta, India. Cooper began giving away
food and other items after many of her rehab center clients came in
needing assistance, such as money for rent, utilities and food.

She recently sold the building housing the rehab center to the state of
Mississippi.

"In the meantime, we could not feed people a hot meal," she said. "I
decided to give out bags of groceries. I decided to give out the
groceries at Pratt, where we had more room."

So three times a month, people come for food, clothing and a "God bless
you" from Cooper.

During the summer, when Jackson temperatures and humidity often push the
heat index past 100 degrees, some clients bring umbrellas. They stand in
a line that snakes downstairs to the church basement, where Cooper and
volunteers take the clients' names and addresses and try to fill as many
needs as possible. An average of 385 people come each week.

Marionette Taylor, a retired Jackson Public Schools teacher, is one of
the volunteers. "I register people and pass out bags," Taylor said. "It
seems each week we have more people coming."

Volunteers also deliver sacks of canned goods, vegetables and other
items to the homes of people who can't pick up the supplies themselves.
"I take five or six bags to people who don't have transportation,"
Taylor said.

Items given to the clients come from a variety of sources, but one in
particular, Cooper said. "It comes from God first and from me second. I
have a couple of wonderful people who help me."

Local churches pitch in. Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church
provides books and other items. Van Winkle United Methodist also
provides goods, and members at Pratt Memorial donate most of the
clothing. Most of the food comes from the Mississippi Food Network.

Cooper mentioned Howard Baron, a member of Briarwood Presbyterian
Church, as a benefactor. Baron helps her find all kinds of items, from
food to appliances. Large items are stored in a building Cooper owns,
then given to ex-homeless people who have turned their lives around.

"The rest comes from people who know of my work and call me. My mission
covers any need a person has I can assist them in," Cooper said.

Most of those seeking aid have jobs, Cooper said. However, she said,
they often have little education and survive as day laborers or in other
low-paying jobs.

"We think just because a person's working they can afford these things.
Once they pay the bills, there's not much left," Cooper said.

Cooper, a Jackson native, started her community service career in 1989
following her conversion to Christianity. She said she believes her
efforts and those of others are making a difference.

"I see men who had left their wives because they couldn't help their
families. They're coming back," Cooper said. "Mothers who had left their
children with grandparents have come back and are raising their own
children.
 
"I see where mothers were doing many things to feed their children. They
can come here and do not have to belittle themselves to feed their
children."

Her programs rely entirely on donations of goods, money and time. They
receive no government funding. "If the government gives you money, they
want you to just help with alcohol and drugs and not give out shoes,"
Cooper said. "We teach the Bible here."

Although the items people receive are free, she said her clients seek "a
hand up, not a hand out."

As successful as the food program is, Cooper is not about to sit back
and watch it run. She recently began a computer training program for
children. Through contacts on community service boards and agencies on
which she has been asked to serve, Cooper was able to secure six
computers and other office supplies.
 
One of those working to make the goal a reality was Brad Pigott, U.S.
attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, who helped arrange
financing.

"God is the only one who allows this to happen. God got the money from a
program that was not doing anything and gave it to me," Cooper said.

Pigott said the funds came from the U.S. Justice Department's "Weed and
Seed" program, which seeks to push criminals out of high-crime areas and
support programs that restore neighborhoods.

"We got some Department of Justice funds to help equip her after-school
program," he said. "These kids have nowhere else to go. They would just
be out on the streets.

"She is the Mother Teresa of west Jackson," Pigott said of Cooper. "She
is a one-of-a-kind social missionary who has resilience and who makes us
feel useless. Lizzie will get you what you need. She will find a way to
get it to you."

The program teaches computer skills to preschoolers to upper teens and
targets children who were born addicted to drugs. Now, Cooper needs more
volunteers to teach the children.

She has other needs, too. "I need canned goods of all types to continue
to help feed people," she said. "For every case of food the Food Network
gives us now, we have to buy so much. I really would like somebody to
send small donations."

Cooper expects soon to have all her programs in three buildings right
next to one another -- the rehab center, the computer learning center
and a community kitchen.

People should not be so quick to condemn the less fortunate, she said.
"We have starving people here in America. I would ask when people see
brothers and sisters on the corner not to put them down but to see how
they can help that person."
# # #
*Woodrick is editor of the Mississippi United Methodist Advocate, the
newspaper of the Mississippi Conference.

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(615)742-5470
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