Since the 1950s, the Trinity United Methodist Church on Southeast Elma Avenue has fed hungry people.

But, over the decades, the lines for the church’s food pantry kept getting longer.

Despite the church’s growing role in the community, its congregation shrunk. The sanctuary, which once sat hundreds of people, became increasingly empty during church services. Now, about 13 people sit in the pews each week. 

Paul Hampson, and other remaining congregants, had to face the facts: if they kept going as they had been, their beloved church would close. One of their temporary, part-time pastors last year, “shoved reality in our face,” Hampson said in an interview.

“It needed to be said that we could not support the property with the resources we had,” Hampson said. “It wasn’t going to last forever.”

Earlier this month, the church closed a deal with the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency which Hampson described in a statement as a “win, win, win, all the way around.”

The action agency bought the church property, and will be able to expand its reach and build over 100 affordable apartments. The sanctuary will stay up, and the congregation will keep their church open while expanding the food pantry with the help of agency staff.

It all started about a year and a half ago when the congregation began searching for a buyer that aligned with its values.

“We decided our legacy was primarily in serving the community,” Hampson said. “We didn’t want to close the church and walk away.”

Located next door to Four Corners Elementary School, the church pantry saw a surge of need during the Covid pandemic, with cars lined up around the block. Since then, the demand has stayed high. It’s now the only Salem food pantry east of Interstate 5.

Recently, it became the most visited food pantry in the city, according to Hampson, serving 314 families in the last week of May.

Last year, a series of calls led the congregation to Jimmy Jones, the executive director of the action agency which operates Head Start preschool, homeless sheltering services and utility payment assistance serving low-income people in the region.

Jones said it was a rare offer: about three acres of land with open lots, a large existing building and some outbuildings. It was also a prime location for the agency, in east Salem which has high levels of poverty and families who may have trouble reaching the services mostly concentrated near downtown. 

The call also came at a time when Jones said his agency was looking to expand its services to keep up with changing community needs, and anticipating a major shift in state funding which would tie resources for the services they provide with affordable housing management.

“A lot of the interests aligned. They needed someone to acquire the property; We were interested in developing affordable housing and getting our feet wet a little bit in some of the food distribution,” Jones said. 

The congregants had a wish list for Jones, and Hampson had made a promise to his community to “dream big.”

They wanted to see their church’s buildings used for public good, and they wanted the food bank to stay open. They also hoped to preserve the sanctuary space, which some of the families helped build decades ago, and asked for priority access to use the facilities for church services and specific events, such as memorial services.

“We got them all,” Hampson said of their requests.

They signed the purchase agreement earlier this month, and Jones said his agency paid $500,000 for the property. The agency plans to tear-down some of the outbuildings to build more than 100 affordable apartments onsite.

Jones called it a “game changer” for his agency, and their biggest step into providing long-term affordable housing in the community.

The agency currently operates emergency shelters, designed to help people land on their feet before moving on to options like affordable housing. They also partner with affordable apartment managers throughout the city to offer services onsite, including at the newly opened Gussie Bell Commons near the Oregon State Hospital.

Their first venture into affordable housing management, earlier this year, was purchasing a 10-unit apartment complex, the Oxford Apartments, at 1163 Howard St. S.E., Jones said, which the agency has renamed to the Howard Street Apartments. 

While details are still being worked out, Jones said they want the apartments on the Trinity United Methodist’s property to serve low-income families who can’t afford other rentals in the community, and would benefit from living right next to Four Corners Elementary School.

He said they want all the apartments to be set to be affordable for people making less than a third of the area’s median income. That would be a limit of $30,550 for a family of four in Marion County, according to state data.

“Salem continues to exist in an affordable housing deficit, and it has for a long time. And then a lot of the affordable units that we have seen built in the last few years are at times not all that affordable,” Jones said. “A lot of the time, the poorest of our neighbors don’t make enough to qualify for the affordable housing units.”

Along with affordable housing, Jones plans to make the building available for community gatherings, like events and dances. The Marion Polk Food Share already has a community garden plot onsite. There’s also the potential to have an agency office at the location, where they can help families access resources like rental assistance.

While construction on the building won’t start until around 2028, the agency has already gotten to work alongside the church to help people in east Salem. 

On Tuesday, the food pantry was bustling with activity ahead in preparation of food distribution on Wednesday. For years, the food pantry had only been open on Saturdays. The partnership with the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency allowed them to open after school on Wednesdays, which brings in about 100 families.

Christian rock music filled the kitchen space, and as Hampson walked through the area he excitedly pointed to new freezers they’ve added in recent months. They’re needed to stock whatever they can get their hands on, he said, including Halal meat, which is a dietary requirement for the Muslim families they serve.

The food pantry recently returned to a “shopping experience,” where families pick their own food to put in grocery carts rather than taking whatever box is handed to them. During Covid when a drive through program was necessary, Hampson said the families always brought unused leftovers back.

Ahead of the purchase, Hampson and other congregants toured the agency’s shelters and services, and met the staff. He said he liked that the agency served people in need without setting high barriers for entry.

“They strive for doing more than the minimum,” Hampson said.

Hampson still has hope that, through community events and welcoming dozens of families to the neighborhood, he may see some new faces in the pews in the years to come.

It’s already started, he said. Since the partnership with the agency started, they’ve added two new members and the average attendance has increased.

“Since we set out to make this work, I’ve sensed a different atmosphere,” Hampson said.

Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.

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