Eight Days of Hope expanding national headquarters to serve more people
A $3 million expansion will provide more space for storage, training and disaster relief efforts
TUPELO, MISS. (WCBI) – It has been a busy week for volunteers with Eight Days of Hope, as they prepare thousands of meals, working out of the ministry’s mass feeding trailers. The meals are delivered to sites around the area, hit hard by the ice storm.
And training is taking place this weekend, for new leaders who will help direct teams of volunteers responding to disasters.
All the work is done out of the ministry’s National Headquarters, built seven years ago, and now it’s time to expand the facility’s footprint.
“We’ve outgrown it, you can see behind me, even though we have equipment all over Northeast Mississippi, our building is full, our training center, meant to train 40 to 50 people, we need to train 300,” said Steve Tybor, founder and president of Eight Days of Hope.
Plans call for a 60,000 square foot building that will be built to the West of the headquarters. It will feature a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen to support the Mass Feeding Ministry, more warehouse space for trailers, trucks, and heavy equipment, along with a larger training center.
“That will allow us to expand the ministry, especially our mass feeding arm. Our mass feeding arm now feeds in seven different communities. In our new building, we will make ten thousand meals per cycle, not to seven communities, maybe fifteen communities,” Tybor said.
Eight Days of Hope deploys rapid response teams in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. They also organize rebuilding efforts nine to twelve months after a disaster, and a Safe House arm of the ministry, which helps care for women and children rescued from sex trafficking
Tybor says he never imagined the reach or growth of the ministry when it started twenty years ago, to help rebuild a house after Hurricane Katrina.
“Part of my personality is to dream big; God dreams way bigger. I didn’t expect this. My Dad and I were going to get a couple of buddies and help rebuild a house. That was our plan, but I think God said, ‘Well, I have a different plan. The greatest sermon I heard is the one I saw, we hear about God’s word, talk about His word, but when we live out God’s Word, people are drawn to Him,” Tybor said.
In the past twenty years, more than 12,000 families have seen volunteers help rebuild their homes after a disaster, more than 55,000 meals have been provided through the mass feeding ministry, along with more than $95 million in free labor.
The expansion should help the ministry double in size within a few years.
A ground breaking ceremony is tentatively set for March or April. Construction should be complete by next spring.
For more information, visit their website at eightdaysofhope.com
