Take Two Partnership Meets a Tangible Need

In 2019, Seymour Christian Reformed Church of Grand Rapids sent our youth group on a mission trip to Detroit. I joined as a leader. While on this trip, we spent time at Hesed Community Church, a Resonate Global Mission partner in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood.

The poverty we witnessed on this trip was life-altering. Most in our group had never seen poverty like that up close in such a large community. Homes in the neighborhood were in various stages of disrepair. Cars were scattered about, some working, some not. Yards were unkempt, but the people were friendly. We heard stories from Momma T about her journey to faith and the generational legacy she is leaving to her children and grandchildren. Her testimony was nothing shy of inspirational.

But the poverty we saw reminded me of the challenges and needs in our own Grand Rapids community.

I returned from Detroit excited about a new idea: to provide hygiene products to anyone in need in the community. All these years, decades really, God had been nudging me to do something about hygiene poverty based on my own story. After talking with our church’s pastor, we launched Take Two Hygiene Pantry in January 2020 with a youth council made up of several high school students from our church. Our name comes from the fact that many food pantries only allow visitors to take one product, but we allow two.

Covid-19 hit a few months later, and the need for hygiene products proved to be greater than imagined. We started an online order form that people could fill out to request items that they could pick up during office hours at Seymour Church. But in October 2022, we started offering an “open pantry” once a month to people in Grand Rapids, eventually serving over 70 families each month. We also set up a 24/7 pantry box just outside our church’s entrance to help those in immediate need of hygiene supplies to stop in and grab one or two things.

The truth is simple: we aren’t trying to end poverty, but are simply trying to give people some dignity as they do their best to make it through each day—a second chance, or second take, if you will. Jesus walked, talked, and touched the people he came into contact with. His ministry met tangible needs. It was personal. Through the Take Two partnership, we hope people can experience a little bit of that.

In the summer of 2023, Seymour Youth returned to Hesed Community Church to work on a few projects. During this trip, Mark and I talked about Take Two and came to the quick conclusion that a 24/7 pantry box would be useful for the Brightmoor neighborhood residents as well.

We knew our ministry could partner with them in filling this need.

Within a month, Mark and his friend Char’Va filled up a box with the hygiene supplies we sent and opened it up to the neighborhood. The box has since become a connection point for Mark and his team with members of the community. Those who use the pantry box are able to connect with someone who genuinely cares for them. Or neighbors can show up discreetly in the cover of darkness, grab a tube of toothpaste or a box of tampons, and be on their way—no questions asked.

This partnership between Take Two and Hesed fills a gap that isn’t often spoken of in social circles—women missing work and girls missing school because period products are so expensive, and they have to choose between either food or tampons. People show up for work or job interviews with body odor or fuzzy teeth because they can’t afford deodorant or a toothbrush. It’s a strange thing to imagine showing up for work knowing your hair is dirty, and you’re using Kleenex instead of a pad, yet it happens all the time. It was my own story for years.

People in communities all around the world today are also suffering from the effects of inflation. Costs have increased almost 50 percent in some areas. Rent, transportation, utilities, food, hygiene products—people are being priced out of necessities that are luxuries in some countries.

The truth is simple: we aren’t trying to end poverty, but are simply trying to give people some dignity as they do their best to make it through each day—a second chance, or second take, if you will. Jesus walked, talked, and touched the people he came into contact with. His ministry met tangible needs. It was personal. Through the Take Two partnership, we hope people can experience a little bit of that.

This partnership between Hesed Community Church and Take Two gives hope, even if just a glimmer, a little spark, to someone who is facing insecurity in difficult ways. Strangely enough, it’s one simple way we can be the hands and feet of Christ.

Written by Mel Solle, Founder and Director of Take Two and the Office & Building Administrator at Seymour Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she is also a member