Mission Possible was started to help feed hungry veterans by J.D. Riley.
The organization meets daily rain or shine to feed, on average, nearly 60 people in Mansfield at Central Park.
“It started as feeding homeless vets, but J.D. decided that if somebody needed something to eat, they could come up and swallow their pride and ask for something to eat, she’d be more than happy to (feed them),” Jason Smith, filling in for Riley said.
Mission Possible, a non-profit agency, seeks companies to donate food and time to feed their lines of hungry people. They often get donations from the local Domino’s Pizza, Smith said.
“We get different companies to donate their time and food everyday, but most of the time it’s organizations, “Smith said. “(The need for food) is real bad around here. People don’t realize. I didn’t realize until I started doing this.”
Smith said in his one month of working at the park, he has seen as many as 120 people lined up to get food.
Margarita Maynard said she tries to come and get food every day at Central Park.
“This is help when I am walking back and forth from job fairs, services, doctors. I stop and have a hot meal, talk to my friends. Programs like this really do help people, and it’s fun to get out.”
She said programs like Mission Possible give the hungry an opportunity to eat well and put something in their stomachs.
“Between Salvation Army and St. Pete’s (St. Peter’s Catholic Church), this is is what keeps people healthy. They have great food down here and it’s always healthy and they watch the sugar the salts. It’s really very good,” she said. “A lot of people wouldn’t have a place (with out Mission Possible), and a lot of people don’t even know about this.”
