CAS Projects and its affiliate stores and food pantry in Belle will close Sept. 25 after 21 years in service.

“This community has been visited by a vision of God,” Sharon Loraine Matthes (Bossaller) wrote in a press release. “For 21 years, a pocket of mercy has been in place. As it was started by the word of God, now it is time to close as of the word of the Lord.”

The group originally advertised that they would cease accepting donations to the Blessing Galore Store on Sept. 1, but have since changed the date to Aug. 2. The Belle Food Pantry, store and all other Maries R-2 local projects will close Sept. 25.

The founders of CAS Projects, Sharon Loraine Matthes Bossaller, the late Leslie Matthes, Starla Neal, and Elaine Buchka, first organized as a charter under Called Anointed Sent, Inc., to become a 501(c)3 in 1999, and open Storehouse Food Pantry.

The executive board of Called Anointed Sent, Inc. agreed to a charter in Belle and they met with the Columbia Food Bank to begin work. By January 1999, they were in service to the community in what is now the auction house on Fourth Street. By fall of 1999, the Storehouse Clothing Outreach began.

Many wanted to volunteer and be part of the outreach and have continued throughout the years. CAS Projects has grown with the community, adding programs where needed.

“At first, we rented Best Buy trucks and used trailers to haul in the food in hot and cold temperatures,” said Bossaller. “People flooded to Belle, and stopped traffic from many counties around because they knew Les and Loraine would feed them if we had food.”

The group was open on Tuesdays at that time and people were in line at 4 and 5 a.m. for food. Local churches and individuals would cook food and feed the volunteers. Christian music would be blasting on the radio.

“Some days the ladies from St. Alexander Catholic Church would come and sing and play the piano and drums,” Bossaller reminisced. “One day I had a ‘Jesus’ moment and realized there were some many different faiths here. I did a ‘sound off’ of what church you were from and there were 14 different churches represented that day.”

By 2001, the group needed more space to help. Someone donated four lots at 101 Belle Avenue, Belle, for a building. While Called Sent Anointed continued to receive support, Bossaller continued to give back to the community.

“Susie Miller, a pastor and our dear friend in Licking, was looking for money to build a daycare,” Bossaller recalled trying to help write the grant, which was rejected. She tried again, and the executive board was invited to Jefferson City to receive help in writing the grant to specifications.

The volunteers continued to come and go. In 2002, Les Matthes died, and three years later, Bossaller married David Bossaller. Their work continued to grow, and around 2005 they had a breakthrough when they were approved to construct a new building.

“We presented our plans before the Belle city council and they gave us 14 grant writing hours from MRPC,” Bossaller said. “Our proposal passed, and we were given $350,000 in Missouri tax credits that should leverage at least $500,000. By January 2007, we were given six months to build.”

The group chose a general contractor in hopes of keeping the money local and creating jobs in the area.

“At that time, we put together a local board that covered tax credits, building and establishing several projects in the new building,” Bossaller said. “This time was not without trials and tests.”

But staying financially debt free was the goal. 

“For those of you who are concerned about the building, our agreement with the Department of Economic Development was as long as we used the building for the purposes intended for a period of three years, the building would stay in the ownership of Called Anointed Sent.”

Millions of dollars of food were given away, and with it came a desire to provide frozen and fresh food. Fundraising enabled the group to install a freezer and cooler unit.

“Dinner plays, golf tournaments, walk-a-thons, rock-a-thons, and matching grants from several directions saw that vision become reality,” Bossaller said. “Walmart Feeding America through Jefferson City and Owensville have given us produce, dairy, meat, and bread every week since.”

With the new building came semi loads of food from The Food Bank of Central and Northeast Missouri, formerly Columbia Food Bank.

“Our name changed as well — to CAS Projects,” Bossaller said. “We often say ‘anything that is alive changes,’ and another famous phrase of CAS Projects is ‘none of us have it all together, but together we have it all.’ All the gifts each volunteer possessed brought us together in a more powerful way.”

While many things have changed, the group added programs according to the gift of the volunteers or a need in the community. A total of 15,000 to 18,000 volunteer hours with no paid employees, and 16 to 18 leadership directors working each year, CAS Projects provided quality community service within a 50 mile radius of its headquarters. Their primary target has always been the Maries R-2 School District.

“Finally, a few years, we got there,” Bossaller said. “Surrounding areas began to take responsibility for their area in a greater way.”

Throughout the years, CAS Projects has served communities with: 

• Free food, household items, and clothing (quarterly);

• Blessing Galore Store and online auction;

• Back to school supplies until MOCA took over;

• VAP volunteers from Wal-Mart;

• Thanksgiving baskets;

• Christmas toys and clothing (200 children in 2018 from Maries R-2 School District) Marine Corp Toys for Tots and trees at local banks;

• Delivery to shut-ins and lunches for volunteers;

• Special day for people with caregivers;

• Community Garden;

• Sharing of nutritional information, and community calendar;

• Classes from budgeting to shopping and cooking, work-ready classes, and production; 

• Community care — gas and funds for medicine and transportation costs with the help of St. Alexander’s Catholic Church; and

• Prayers, Christian Lending Library, and in the day, overflow to mission fields of the world.