New Service for TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com readers...roll mouse over, click on highlighted links in stories to review items from Amazon

Seniors' Rights/Missouri city officials want to shut down Church's grocery ministry that serve...In the face of opposition from city officials, a Missouri church is fighting to continue a ministry that distributes food to area needy,  low-income and elderly residents...Once a month, members of Christ Church of the Heartland help distribute groceries to needy families and individuals throughout Cape Girardeau, Missouri...(more)

The outreach is coordinated throughout the national ministry known as Angel Food, and those who receive the groceries pay a small fee.City officials have informed the church it would need a special use permit to operate a retail business.

However, Pastor Zack Strong believes a building project has angered several residents who complained to the city."Since our construction project, we have had a neighbor or two that's really spoken out against us. And every move we make, it just seems like they're always contacting the city," he says.

"But in their eyes, evidently because money is being exchanged here, they are saying that we're doing a retail business and it cannot be done in a residential area."

He claims that the ministry benefits many low-income and elderly residents. "It really helps our seniors," the pastor explains. "Like one box can provide possibly a month's, almost a month of meals ... maybe a meal a day for a senior. To maybe a single parent with children, it could be a week's amount of food for them.  "Pastor Strong will go before the city's mayor and commissioners in a public hearing on the matter early next month.