Rust Street Ministries Expands its Facility in San Angelo

January 31, 2016 marked the grand opening of the Rust Street Ministries after its extensive remodel at 803 Rust Street in San Angelo. The agency originally began in 1995 with a simple old, broken down school bus.

Ed Huston, Board of Directors for Rust Street Ministries, said, “This is where it began. It started in an old school bus that they painted like a cow, white and black splotches all over it, and they called it the C.O.W., which is Closet On Wheels. Eventually we got an updated C.O.W. and the bulk of activities experienced by the C.O.W. is directed by the college group RAMS for Christ.”

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Since its start, the agency has expanded, and Jerica Osbourn, ASU Rams for Christ, has taken the C.O.W. program to a new level.

“Once a week, a group of my college kids and I will come to Rust Street, and we pack and hang all the clothes that are on the C.O.W. We also pack up bags of food.” Osbourn explained. ”We then take it out each week to a different elementary school in the area, so that way, we hit every elementary school at least once during the calendar year. Once we arrive at the school, we let the kids go through and pick out their own clothes which is really exciting for them. They are allowed three outfits plus a jacket for each person in their family, and the family doesn’t have to be present. So they get their clothes and a bag of food, and we offer to pray with them before they leave. We try to do that every week.”

In late 1996, a warehouse space and basic offices were rented at 803 Rust Street for the collection and distribution of clothing until it began to expand. The owners of the warehouse donated the entire facility in 1997. In 2012, the agency experienced more blessings. Rust Street Ministries was given the opportunity to purchase the adjacent vacant warehouse to expand the facility another 30,574 square feet.

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Huston provided an outlook on what Rust Street Ministries offers to those in need in San Angelo.

“We give out food, clothing, and house hold goods," he explained. "Most of those items are donated, and, a lot of times, we get cash and we use that to buy food. We do get some food donated, but, most of the time, we buy the food from the Regional Food Bank using monies that are donated. The food we buy from Regional Food Bank, we buy in large quantities and use as we need to.” This food is kept in a large refrigerator that was donated by a contractor on Goodfellow AFB, Huston added.

In 2015 Rust Street Ministries assisted 29,157 people from San Angelo and the surrounding areas.

“We serve about 50 families per day and those families will range from 1 person to 10.” Huston stated. The agency also has given out 328,543 pounds of food, 61,176 articles of clothing, 1,729 pieces of furniture and 521 appliances. We give out food five times in a calendar year to a family. We give out clothing once every six months to all the members of the family that need it. And we give out household goods like sheets and blankets, toasters and microwaves, washing machines, refrigerators, beds and everything else that goes into a household once a year. We limit people so we can help more people. So that is our only motive for doing that.”

The items Rust Street Ministries get donated goes through a sorting process where only the best quality gets passed through and used.

“We get things donated out at our donation dock and it goes through three sorts, where volunteers go through what we get and they place it in a keep or cull.” Huston stated. “We determine if items need to be washed, search for any flaws that would make it non-useable, or even if the style is so bad that no one is going to want it. Then it goes through the sort of sizing, aging, determining what rack we need to go with and labeling and date. That date tells us how long that item has been there. If it has been there for three months, we take it down and determine no one is going to want it.”

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Everything that comes through the agency's donation station is not only sorted but treated as well.

“All bed and soft furniture has to be treated for bed bugs,” Huston provided. “If we don’t do that, we would be a source of spreading bed bugs. Before soft furniture is available to the public, it is treated to prevent bed bugs.”

However, Rust Street Ministries has debated whether or not to discontinue the furniture aspect due to lack of staffing.

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“We don’t want to do anything that we don’t do well.” Huston stated. “We don’t want to give out junk to people so we have to decide, are we going to get bigger or smaller? We haven’t made that decision yet.”

Currently, the agency has just over 100 volunteers who aid in the various processes at Rust Street Ministries and help the people who walk through their doors.

“Our people range from the homeless to large families who just can’t take care of everybody.” Huston elaborated. “Everything we give is given away free. We, as interviewers, have to make some decisions about who may be asking for too much or who isn’t asking for enough. We do have both of those. Usually, whatever they come in and say they need, we give it to them. Occasionally, we have to make a judgment call and that is not easy, but we need to do it.”

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These volunteers aid in food preparation, sorting, deliveries and so on.

“The volunteers in the pantry put together different bags of food for different sized families.” Huston explained. “Food sheets were put together with the help of a dietitian where we determine about 10 days worth of food for a single family, medium-sized family and large family. Our Bread Truck goes down to the bread store and fills it up with bread that didn’t sell and takes it over to Northside Rec Center where it is unloaded. That is an activity we work with the Paul Ann Baptist Church.”

Rust Street Ministries staff wanted to make sure that San Angelo knows their donations go towards helping others with no strings attached.

“We sometimes get money, but most of the time, we get clothes and furniture. We couldn’t operate without getting money because we can’t get enough food donated, so we need to buy it.” Huston further explained. “There are some other things we need to buy like socks, underwear, these are the things you don’t get donated. It is important we tell the public this. Rust Street Ministries is a Ministry of Johnson Street Church. All the people who work for Rust Street Ministries are paid by Johnson Street. All of the electricity, gas, telephone bills are all paid for by Johnson Street. Reason that is important is that we can say that, if you give us anything, 100 percent goes to helping people. You are not paying for any overhead.”

Rust Street Ministries staff said they believe in neighbors helping neighbors and that God has a place for each to make a real difference.

“We are interested in their spiritual being, but our main mission is to supply families with the needs that they have.” Huston stated.

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Rust Street Ministries also has partnerships with the following businesses and agencies:

• HEB, Sam’s Club, Walmart – Food Make a DDistribution
• Texas Hunger Initiative – Food for Kids Program
• SAISD – Closet on Wheels Program (COW)
• Sierra Vista Methodist & SAISD – Beds for Kids
• Paul Ann Baptist Church – Bread Program
• West Texas Counseling – Tools for Life Program
• Methodist Health Care – Health Screening Program
• San Angelo RN Volunteers – Diabetes Classes
• ASU SBDC & CVCAA – Make a Difference Loan Program
• AgriLife – Community Garden, Garden of Eden
• Helping Hands – Senior Home Repair
• Red Cross & LEPC – Emergency & Disaster Relief

For more information, or to volunteer, please call Janet Branham at 325-486-1004.

Rust Street Ministries are open Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m – 2 p.m, and Friday, 9 a.m – 12 p.m. Their donation hours are open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.