The New Hope Center: A History

The New Hope Center is older than 6 Stones. Much older. The emergency food and clothing center on North Industrial Boulevard began as a simple clothing closet at First Baptist Church of Euless. That was 25 years ago. Since then, the once-migratory clothing closet has put down roots and picked up more than a few upgrades.

In 1991, a few brave volunteers spent their free hours wheeling racks of clothing in and out of a small room at the church. In the early years, donations were picked up in the halls of First Euless, and whatever resources went unclaimed were packed away; rolled out of sight and out of mind or tucked back into the single bookcase on which sorted clothes were displayed. A year later, those racks were moved across the street into the building that would become New Hope. At the time, the church was inheriting an old Hancock Fabrics store.

For the first few years, the only food stocked in the pantry was canned or dried, and all of it was isolated in a single room. But, over the years, the program would grow. 6 Stones took over operation of the center in 2009, at which time the New Hope name was adopted. Walls were broken down and the clothing capacity expanded. We secured a more sustainable food distribution model with the addition of a converted warehouse space in 2010. The Community Garden was planted in 2011 and swung into operation in 2012; the same year a generous donation secured a massive walk-in freezer unit for the warehouse. Suddenly, volunteers were equipped to receive and store a wide array of food donations that would otherwise have been turned away.

Now, in the fall of 2016, the New Hope Center is expanding again. The new space is designed to be more welcoming and elegant; functional as well as friendly. Community partners will have access to remodeled conference areas, as well; making the new space a resource for the entire 6 Stones coalition. The grand opening of the updated New Hope Center will be hosted on the morning of Saturday, October 1 from 9am until noon, and we’d love to have you out to take a look. Until then, though, we thought the best way to explain the significance of the new space was through the eyes of our volunteers…