By EMILY SPARACINO / Staff Writer

CHELSEA – Kim Bradley knows a small bag of food can go a long way in helping someone through a tough time in his or her life.

Nine years ago, Bradley, 42, of Chelsea formed Heavenly Smile Inc., a faith-based non-profit organization that operates a community food pantry and assists area churches with benevolent outreach projects.

The ministry has grown since then, but Bradley, director of Heavenly Smile, wants to grow it more to serve as a resource for training, job skill development, financial planning and budgeting.

“My vision is that this be a center for continuing the food ministry, but also an educational and job development center,” Bradley said in an Oct. 15 interview. “We try to just be a part of the community.”

Bradley had the idea to form Heavenly Smile while doing benevolence work at her church, Chelsea Church of God.

“It just turned out that we were doing a lot of feeding projects,” Bradley said. “We’ve just always been community oriented. A food pantry is something Chelsea had never had, and we had the space for it.”

Heavenly Smile is housed in the Chelsea Centre building off Shelby County 39. In addition to operating the food pantry with non-perishable canned and boxed food and personal hygiene items, the organization sponsors families with gifts during Christmas; provides food packages for Thanksgiving and Christmas; dispenses food to shut-ins; operates a bread ministry on the third and fourth Tuesday of each month; and participates in a jail ministry.

Volunteers like Linda Brasher and Tammy Watkins help organize pantry items, process applications from and conduct interviews with potential recipients.

Volunteers also minister to people when they come in for interviews.

“I’ve been involved as a volunteer for several years,” Brasher said. “Personally, it’s been really fulfilling to me.”

Local organizations, businesses, schools, groups and residents periodically hold food drives and donate items to re-stock Heavenly Smile’s pantry shelves.

In 2014, Heavenly Smile gave out 2,063 pounds of food, received 3,369 pounds of food and served 25 families and 47 children.

The organization distributed 1,873 pounds of food, received 2,926 pounds of food and served 30 families and 45 children in 2013.

“Our plan this year is to still cover 50 children and a minimum of 30 families,” Bradley said. “People go through a lot of things they’ve never gone through before. Just to say, hey, we’re here if you need us … goes a long way.”

The organization is named after a poem Bradley’s grandfather L.P. Bradberry wrote titled “Heavenly Smile.”

The first line of the poem, “life is much easier when you meet it with a smile,” is on Bradley’s business card.

“We try to give a hand up, not a hand out,” Bradley said. “We have a goal to grow, but right now, this is where God has us. It’s just really a community effort.”

An open house at Heavenly Smile is planned for January.

Heavenly Smile is open Tuesdays and Thursdays, noon to 4 p.m. It is located at Chelsea Centre, 1800 Shelby County 39 in Chelsea.

For more information, email info@heavenlysmileinc.com or visit the Heavenly Smile Facebook page.