Twin Lakes Church recently held the grand opening for its new Hope Center, a new state-of-the-art facility designed to centralize and expand the church’s local community outreach, support programs, and emergency assistance operations.
Replacing several aging portable structures on the Aptos campus, the $11.3 million, two-story, 13,000-square-foot structural steel building will serve as a permanent, dedicated home for a wide array of vital local ministries while creating welcoming spaces for community partners.
At the heart of the Hope Center is the expanded home for The People’s Pantry, one of Santa Cruz County’s crucial food distribution networks.
The new facility includes a large, walk-in commercial cooler and freezer to store fresh produce, dairy, and perishables; a covered outdoor portico designed to streamline drive-through food distribution and shelter volunteers during inclement weather; and dedicated staging areas for receiving, sorting, and storing food items efficiently.
Beyond food assistance, the Hope Center will provide tailored infrastructure for personal support and education. It has living-room style meeting spaces designed to offer a comfortable environment for 12-step recovery programs, grief support, divorce care, cancer encouragement, and mental health groups.
It has multipurpose classrooms for Bible studies, adult education, and Sunday school programs.
And it has a community meeting space with an outdoor trellis-covered patio designed for gatherings and fellowship. The facility’s meeting rooms are also available to local civic and community groups.
In keeping with Twin Lakes Church’s tradition of pairing local capital improvements with international mission support, $100,000 from the Hope Center capital campaign was allocated to assist the expansion of the Nazareth Evangelical College and Seminary in Israel.