The Emergency Assistance Program was designed to assist individuals and families that are experiencing a crisis. That means they can ususally pay their bills but something unusual happens and they get behind on their bills and are unable to pay them.
What constitutes a crisis? A crisis is an unplanned event or situation that causes the client a hardship. Loss of a job, illness or hopitalization, car repairs, death in the family and unusually high utility bills all qualify as a crisis. As with any assistance program there are guidelines and restrictions that apply.
Below is a list of what our program can and cannot assist clients with, along with what they will need in order to be seen by our case worker.
We do assist without an appointment:
- emergency food (must have picture ID and social security cards of all persons in the home.)
- clothing (must have picture ID)
- Furniture and houshold items (must be a referral from the American Red Cross or Southeastern Family Violence)
- toiletry kits (referral from ARC, SFV or homeless)
- school kits (must have verifiable legal custody of children)
You must have an appointment, verifiable income, and a verificable crisis for the following assistance:
- Utility bills (must be within 10 days of cut off)
- Rent or Mortgage (must be pass due 30 days)
- Medicine (we do not pay for pain medicine)
We DO NOT assist with:
- Deposits of any kind
- car repairs
- water bills
- phone bills
- doctor office visits
- burials
The Lumberton office serves people from: Lumberton, Fairmont, Pembroke, Rowland, Orrum, Marietta, and St Pauls.
The Red Springs office serves people from: Red Springs, Maxton, Shannon, Lumber Bridge, Parkton, and Rennert.
Emergency Assistance provides a place where someone cares when you have a crisis and need help to get through the situation.
Free Choice Food Pantry enables adults to choose about four days worth of food for their families. Nutritional guidelines are suggested and assistance is provided. We are a member of the Feeding America Second Harvest Food Bank of Southeast North Carolina. This membership enables us to distribute TEFAP commodities provided by the federal government for Americans in need of short term hunger relief. We partner with Food Lion and receive dated but still good food to supplement our donated food in the free choice food pantry.
The Christmas Store with a little assistance from us, provides hundreds of people a brighter Christmas each year. We try to help all types of families but especially grandparents raising grandchildren. To participate, please collect new, unwrapped books, clothing and nonviolent toys for children aged birth to 12 years old. We also need monetary donations for gift certificates for teenagers and adults. Please send donations no later than December 1. Every household also receives the fixins’ for a delicious dinner!
