Joyful Harvest Neighborhood Center had its beginnings as a seed American Baptist Church planted in 1995. With Rev Laura Holt-Haslam as pastor the meetings were first held in homes, then latter on Bacon St, Biddeford, ME in 1997. As the congregation felt called to work with the poor and broken of the city, work began to reach out to the community.
By the fall of 1999, it became apparent that both church and community outreach could not be financially supported. After much prayer we came to the conclusion that we would be more effective as a Christian neighborhood center than as a church.
In 2001 Joyful Harvest reincorporated as a Neighborhood Center and became a 501(c)3 organization. At that time we also took Store Soup, a local food pantry, under our wing. For the next two years we grew and provided many services to the community. The two strongest activities were the food pantry which was Stone Soup and activities for children after-school and in the summer.
In May of 2003, we felt God’s leading to refocus our ministry and become two agencies. Stone Soup Food Pantry stayed on Bacon St where they are still today. Joyful Harvest Neighborhood Center moved to Water Street where we focused on children’s programs during the after-school hours.
During the next 3 years we grew to become a major safe place for community children. Programs included activities that brought enrichment of art, culture, health, faith and academics. Though the space was a good location with space that allowed for us to grow, there were several reasons we needed to move. In the summer of 2006, after a long search we felt lead to a space right down the road. The new space was better laid out and would allow for staff to more safely monitor children, adapt furniture to activities and gave us access to a larger park. The move to the new location gave us higher visibility in the community, leading other service programs to network with us in using our space and has resulted in strengthening our after-school and summer programs.
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