Las Sabinas, Volume 35, Number 4, 2009 Page: 24
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Las Sabinas History Journal and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Orange County Historical Society.
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ORANGE CHRISTIAN SERVICES
Serving Orange County Since 1979
God's Love in Action
Orange Christian Services (OCS) is a non-profit organization of 43 churches joined
together in Christian love to give emergency assistance to those in our area unable to
obtain help elsewhere.
OCS was organized in March of 1979 by a group of people with a vision, a conviction
and a calling to help their fellowman in need. Bob Zollinger with the Texas Department
of Human Resources sent letters to all area churches asking them to attend a meeting to
discuss the needs the community had for emergency assistance. Those that attended
discovered that all had common requests for emergency assistance with food, clothing,
housing, medical bills, gas and utility aid. This group of people wanted to be able to
better meet the needs of people whose income was below the proverty level, those who
had experienced a burnout, loss of job, illness or had become disabled. They decided that
by pooling resources and having one central location from which help would be given
and records kept, they could better meet the needs and eliminate some of the duplication.
Orange Christian Services opened its doors for service on October 1, 1979, with five
member churches, They were Community Church, St. Francis Catholic Church, St.
Mary's Catholic Church, Trinity Lutheran Church and Wesley United Methodist Church.
St. Mary's Catholic Church offered the use of some of the upstairs classrooms in the old
St. Mary's school building at 9 h and Orange until a more suitable location could be
found. OCS began offering help with food and clothing, which were collected from the
member churches. An average of 15 to 20 families were helped a month.
In October 1981, two years after opening, OCS obtained a permanent location from
which to operate. The former Texas Employment Commission building at 316 Cypress
was purchased for $36,000 from the State. This purchase was made possible by the
support of the churches, civic clubs, individual donations and fundraisers. Much work
had to be done to the new home of OCS. The outside had a major overhaul in yard work
and tree trimming. The complete interior was repainted. Shoe racks and shelving for the
food pantry were constructed by volunteers.
Orange Christian Services received the award for outstanding volunteer group of Region
10 of the State of Texas for 1981, and was nominated for outstanding volunteer group of
the State of Texas for the Governor's Award. Four volunteers attended the annual
volunteer conference in Austin in 1981.
The number of families requesting assistance had grown to about 50 per month by late
1981. During the month of January, 1982 assistance was given to 101 families and
February, 1982 the number was up to 119 families. This was due to the large number of
lay-offs in our area and the lack of jobs for non-skilled workers. Clients services had
expanded from just food and clothing to also include financial assistance for rent,24
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Orange County Historical Society (Tex.). Las Sabinas, Volume 35, Number 4, 2009, periodical, 2009; Orange, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth312948/m1/30/?q=Lamar+University: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Orange County Historical Society.