Melissa Stewart: FLORENCE – Behind Cindy Carris’ vivacious smile and welcoming, “so glad to see you,” is the heart of a servant.
Florence Rotary Club president Adam Howard said there’s no other way to describe the woman who’s been named the club’s Citizen of the Year. She will be honored at the Aug. 18 Rotary Luncheon.
Carris, 52, of Edgewood, is the president of Mary Rose Mission, a nonprofit Catholic organization. An active community volunteer for many years, Carris was instrumental in opening the Mary Rose Mission Soup Kitchen on Main Street in Florence in 2013.
“Cindy is an extremely humble person,” Howard said. “She’s caring and compassionate. She has a servant’s heart. She greets all guests at the Mary Rose Mission as if they’re longtime friends. Her passion for serving the guests is contagious.”
So much so that the mission has attracted hundreds of volunteers from the region who’ve donated thousands of hours so the soup kitchen can feed an average of 115 people four days a week.
For Carris the mission is not just about filling bellies, but about fulfilling a need deep within the soul.
“We feed their bodies, but also we give our guests an opportunity to connect to someone,” she said. “We want to show them from the moment they walk in the door that someone cares for them. They know that they can lean on us and we can bring them some comfort. We take prayer requests and inform them about resources they can access.”
The soup kitchen started as somewhat of a quiet, small voice whispering subtly over and over in Carris’ mind.
“My daughter had started student teaching and came home one day very distraught,” she said. “There were kids in her classroom, it was a Monday, who had not eaten since Friday afternoon. I thought to myself, ‘That can’t be right. This is happening in our own back yard?’ Then God kept hitting me with it. I was hearing of other situations throughout the area.”
At that time, the Covington-based nonprofit that had gotten its start providing hospice care was looking for a new cause. It wasn’t until Carris would hear the words loud and clear from a leader of the Mary Rose Mission in Grenada that she fully realized the nonprofit would “need to open a soup kitchen.”
“I was like a deer in headlights,” she says with a chuckle. “Meanwhile, my husband is saying, ‘She can do it!’”
She went before the board of directors and eventually gained their support.
Before she knew it, Carris, a stay-at-home mother of four daughters, with zero background in business or restaurant management, was calling out “So glad to see you” to guests of the soup kitchen.
The soup kitchen is open four days a week, but is looking to expand operations to seven days, 365 days a year. There are even plans to open a shelter.
“This is a special place,” Carris said. “I’m blessed to be here. All I’ve ever wanted was to be a wife and mom and God blessed me with these things. After realizing this, God touched my heart and now all I do, I do for Him. He’s led me on this path. God can do so much. It’s all very humbling.
Want to continue the conversation? Tweet @MStewartReports
