BOGG feeds the need

Ministry group gives 500 Thanksgiving baskets.

Contact this contributing writer at PamDillon@woh.rr.com.


What you can do

To find out ways to help, call 937-435-6181, ext. 174, or go online to www.thebogg.org. The twitter account is #feeddayton.

The numbers are alarming. The most recent statistics show that 130,000 people are food insecure in the greater Dayton area. That equates to one out of every five people. Most heart-wrenching of all, 35,000 of them are children.

Jason Barton and Jason Johnston of BOGG Ministries set out to help four families over five years ago, and the charity has grown exponentially. The nonprofit’s acronym stands for Because of God’s Grace.

In 2010, three dozen families were provided Thanksgiving meals. This year the charity gave out a total of 500 Thanksgiving baskets on Nov. 21 in Miamisburg. The baskets held a turkey, stuffing mix, potatoes, canned vegetables/cranberries and pumpkin pie, everything needed to cook a nutritious Thanksgiving meal. There are a lot of families going through a difficult time in the area who appreciated the extra help during the holiday season.

“This will be our sixth year doing a Thanksgiving event. The first one was for 30 families. This year, we plan on serving 500. It costs us around $7,000 to $10,000 to pull this off each year,” said Johnston of Centerville, director/co-founder.

The charity got its start in March 2010 when Barton, a Miamisburg resident, saw a need and wanted to fill it. He noticed free/reduced lunch fliers going home with school kids and gathered a small group at church to help out. He and Johnston then led the effort to provide hot meals once a week for four families in Miamisburg.

“We started with an old station wagon filled with dinners for a few families and have grown to a box truck with … groceries and a hot meal for over 200 families each week,” a statement from both Barton and Johnston on the annual report.

The communities BOGG serves from their large Blue and Black truck and trailer emblazoned with “We Love People, We Feed People”: Centerville, East Dayton, Kettering, Miamisburg, Moraine, Northridge, West Carrollton and Xenia.

The first two years, the nonprofit served the needs of 900 people. From 2012 to August 2015, a total of 78,000 people were fed. The projection for 2016 alone is 50,000 people. To provide this level of assistance requires enormous funding and a lot of volunteers.

The nonprofit organization is based out of SouthBrook Christian Church in Miami Twp. Other sponsors: Thaler Machine Company, Baughn Insurance Group, Pappa’s Pizza Palace, Coldwell Banker/Jeff Jett, East Dayton Christian Church, Applied Mechanical Systems, Local Love/a Roaming Boutique, INET Global Ministries, Back to Business I.T. and AmazonSmile.

A woman named Mary Jane says on the BOGG Ministries website:"I was down and out and didn't know where to get help. I was sent to a man named Jason at BOGG. He welcomed me with a warming smile and asked, 'How can I help you?' That's when I felt like a person, not a number. Thanks for showing me I am someone and showing me all the love. Also, thank you for filling my family's belly. You turned my life around and gave me back my faith in God."

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