Initially started nearly thirty years ago in response to increased requests from members in the north Omaha community seeking food, clothing, shelter and financial assistance, the Heart Ministry Center has always aimed to assist people needing life's most basic necessities.
Fr. Jim Scholz hired Sr. Mary Ann Murphy in 1982 to open the Sacred Heart Human Needs Door Ministry. For the better part of the next 15 years, Sr. Murphy along with a number of parishioners focused their attention on serving those families with children in school. By 1997, Sr. Murphy moved the newly titled Heart Ministry Center to a house located off 31st and Spaulding Street.
In 2002, Fr. Tom Fangman enlisted the support of 12 community and business leaders with the task of bringing the Heart Ministry Center back on the Sacred Heart Campus. For the better part of the next three years, this building committee purchased an abandoned grocery store on the northeast corner of 24th and Binney Street and began raising funds to construct a new building. By May 2005, the building committee had completed its goal and the Center was operating out of 9600 square foot building, constructed debt free designed specifically to assist those in need.
During the first two years at its new location, the Center experienced tremendous growth and underwent several major changes. In 2006, the newly formed board of directors hired Sara Hohnstein to be the Center's executive director. In Ms. Hohnstein's first year, the Center grew from providing 3,000 services a year to 16,000 services a year. Ms. Hohnstein also transformed the Center into Omaha's first and only choice food pantry so clients could begin selecting their own foods. With the increase in people coming to the Center, the Center now needed a major fundraiser. Hence, the creation of Holy Smokes, a casual barbeque held in the late summer.
Throughout the next four years, the Center continued to grow. In the summer of 2009, the Center opened a community garden so clients would have a greater selection of food to choose from including a number of healthier food options. In that next fall, a self-sufficiency program for young mothers called Pathway was started. Shortly thereafter, the Center partnered with Creighton University to open a medical clinic to treat clients' acute care needs. By the end of 2009, the Center was providing over 28,000 acts of assistance to individuals each year.
In the following year, the Center continued to grow under the direction of its new executive director John Levy. In his first year at the Center, Mr. Levy oversaw the expansion of the medical clinic, the development of a group mentoring program for at-risk youth, the construction of a children's play area in the clothing closet, and a dramatic increase in people being served to over 5,500 people a month or 70,000 people per year. Despite the increase in demand for services, the Center strives to provide the same high quality, personalized care.
