By: Melanie Baker
In April of 2020, The Branch found itself in need of a Pantry Director. Our previous Director and Co-founder of The Branch, Liz Minor felt God was leading her away to something different. Our needs were increasing in demand and as always, God has something prepared for these times. Sarai stepped up. She was a frequent volunteer and a Board Member and felt that she could step in during this uncertain season and help. Her current employer was putting everything “on hold” just like most employers in the world. So Sarai was able to work for The Branch and help us navigate through the new crisis and challenges before us.
Not long after she began helping, we were making plans to move operations to a larger place in order to facilitate the amount of people that needed help. The demands of all of this were huge and required significant organizational skill, stamina, flexibility, and forethought. Sarai rose to this task. For months, we managed running the operation of The Branch between 2 locations. The previous place held our freezer and walk-in cooler and items had to be transported daily. We were serving 300 families each week, every day of the week except for Sunday.
We ended up hiring Sarai to be our new Pantry Director and she has been a gift from God. We have completed our move of operations over to Antioch United Methodist Church at 41 Tusculum Rd for the foreseeable future and Sarai has organized this operation with such wisdom and precision. In the middle of extreme challenge, she has risen, grown, and met the demand. She is one of our super heroes.