Over Coffee
Hanging on By Faith & a Prayer
By
May 15, 2008 - 1:53:23 PM

I don’t have what anyone could ever call “gourmet tastes.” I like my hotdogs black off a grill, wild poke salat with onions and hot peppers, smoked mullet, and the skins of just about every fruit but bananas.

But I am definitely a coffee connoisseur. Just like the blindfolded wine tasters who can tell where the grapes of a merlot or cabernet were grown, I can smell the aroma of almost any brand of coffee and tell you its name.

I also appreciate the differences in taste. I have places I know I won’t drink the coffee. These people – usually members of my family – expect me to show up with a Styrofoam cup from a convenience store in my hand, which I often do, rather than have to come right out and say, “No thank you but – if you recall- I’ve told you before that I think your coffee stinks.”

Photos courtesy of Greg Merritt Photography Daystar’s executive director Sue Sutko often receives volunteer help from former recipients like Gilbert. He says he is glad to come back whenever possible to help others get through a rough patch in life.

  I preface this column with these remarks because last week I drank the best cup of coffee I’ve had in at least five years. It was served to me at the Riverview home of Sharon Merritt as we discussed her work on the board of the Daystar Faith Center in Gibsonton. (Please don’t anybody rush over there and say I sent you. She’s a very busy lady!) 

For those who aren’t familiar with Daystar, you get there by turning west off U.S. 41 on Alice Avenue, which is the small street opposite the east turn that takes you up Gibsonton Drive. A quick right turn at the next street will take you straight to it. You can’t miss it. Just look for all the people eating outside under a large oak tree.

They aren’t slackers. While some have mental or emotional issues, most are just down on their luck. With jobs scarce; huge layoffs all around us; the price of gas and food skyrocketing, and housing in a slump, more and more people are living on the street.

Sharon Merritt, board member and fundraising director for Daystar Faith Center in Gibsonton, puts away donated food in Daystar’s food pantry. Where once the organization fed about five people a day, now that number can range between 50 and 100.

  There was a time when Daystar volunteers fed free lunches to about five people a day. Now that figure ranges between 50 and 100.

“If it wasn’t for them, we just wouldn’t eat,” a homeless woman I met there told me. “They’re our angels. I don’t know what we would do without them.”

Daystar isn’t a shelter. It has no beds. It’s a self-help nonprofit organization loosely connected to the Catholic Church on land generously donated by the United Methodist Church of Gibsonton under the leadership of the Rev. Wayne Kato. It is a place for everyone, and Bible stories and prayers are informal- often given as part of the conversation that takes place as volunteers and recipients eat together under the tree.

Staffed and supported by volunteers, the head of the operation is Daystar’s executive director, Sue Sutko. “You wouldn’t believe how hard she works and how much she gets done with so little,” Sharon told me.

But after taking a good look around, I would believe anything.

Daystar doesn’t give hand-outs, it gives what volunteers call “hands-up.”

They provide the homeless a physical address and telephone number for job applications. They allow them to clean up in their restrooms and take clothing from their donation bags. They help those who might qualify through the governmental maze of food stamp and disability and veteran’s benefit applications; and arrange bus transportation to job interviews, work, medical appointments and other important destinations.

People say the homeless should help themselves but that’s impossible when you have no food or transportation. Worse yet- many have no identification. While there, I met a man who got his first ID in five years.

“They don’t exist if they have no ID,” Sue said. “They can’t even apply for anything.”

When I arrived, I had to wait awhile to see Sue. The reason? She was tied up on the telephone helping a “client” through a disability hearing.

Publix and Second Harvest help Daystar, as do some of the area churches and the Jewish synagogue. “But many people do not know we are here,” Sue said.  
 
Daystar opened in February 2007 and is well hidden from the main thoroughfare. Without being told where it was, I’d never have seen it.

The volunteer staff- and Sue, who is its only employee- go from week to week on faith and prayer. There is never enough to go around. Not enough money to pay for electricity and water; not enough money for bus tickets and tokens.

“We have to keep the electricity on to operate the computers,” Sue said. It’s by computer that all the applications are filed. Veterans benefits; Medicare assistance; low income subsidies; Medicaid applications; food stamps- can all be done by computer. To people whose only transportation is shoe-leather or a bicycle, computer applications seem like a miracle.

Daystar can use any monetary donation whether it’s $1 or $1,000. The gifts are all tax deductible. And only cash (not food stamps) can buy shampoo, soap, and other necessary hygiene items.

Sue and Sharon say they hope more area churches will become involved. Food for the pantry; for cold bag lunches and cooked hot meals is also needed, as well as cash and volunteers. Pots of beans and chili and other one-dish hot foods cooked at home that can be brought in and served from a crock pot or food warmer are always appreciated as well.

To find out more about this unique ministry, call (813) 672-6061.   

*Perhaps you have something you’d like to share. Or maybe you’d rather tell the community about your favorite charity or cause: or sound off about something you think needs changed. That’s what “Over Coffee” is about. It really doesn’t matter whether we actually drink any coffee or not (although I probably will). It’s what you have to say that’s important.



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