At 9 a.m. Tuesday last week, about 175 people -- men, women and children -- stood unprotected in a steadily-falling rain in the parking lot of the Greeneville Seventh-day Adventist Community Services Center off the Asheville Highway, anxiously waiting for it to open.

Some had been in line for over three hours.

They all hoped to be one of the fortunate ones to get a "food number" that would entitle them to one of a limited number of "food boxes" for their family, as well as to an early pick at the best clothes.

The food, clothes, furniture and other items at the 10,000-square foot facility on Idletime Drive, located behind the Seventh-Day Adventist Church on the Asheville Highway, are free to clients. The center also has a neatly-arranged thrift store with very inexpensive items.

The center is open one day a week, on Tuesday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Clothing and food are the number one and number two demands, followed by financial assistance for bills -- usually for Greeneville Light & Power System bills -- that volunteers at the community center encounter on a weekly basis, according to center officials. Some clients also request, and get, furniture.

The center is open to everyone with a need, whatever their faith.

On a recent Tuesday, Vickie Cole, perused a clothes rack, one of several in the center.

"My car tore up two-three weeks ago," Cole said. "It's been pretty rough (living) out there in the country. I've also had my mom in the hospital."

She praised the community center for helping her and others.

"They (the center) helped a friend of mine who lives alone in a trailer. He and his wife split. They helped him with his rent."

David ("Pastor Dave") Sharpe, actually a retired Seventh-day Adventist Church pastor, is the volunteer director of the center.

"We're getting more new clients," said Sharpe in a recent interview. "In the last six to seven months we've been averaging about 75 new clients every month."

He said as gas prices rose, so did the number of people requesting assistance -- "especially when it hit $4 a gallon."

Detailed information on each recipient is updated in computer files. ID's are required, in part to keep people from applying for assistance under different names, according to the center's staff.

Clients may receive one food box per family once a month.

The center buys beans and rice which is in turn placed in the food boxes. The rest of the food comes from Second Harvest in Gray and King's Charities in Bristol.

Those seeking financial assistance fill out forms and are then personally interviewed from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. The staff then meets to decide which people to help with the limited funds they have, giving priority to single mothers.

The center is in great demand.

"We're straining our facility to provide food to 120 families a week," Sharpe said in an interview at the center.

He said 80 percent of the funds the facility collects come from members and former members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church nearby. The remaining 20 percent come from individuals, businesses and others in the community.

All of the staff at the center are volunteers. In July, for example, a small army of volunteers, most working part-time, contributed 1,641 hours of volunteer time to staff the facility on Sunday-Thursday.

Statistics gathered by the center show that in July:

* 1,062 food boxes were given away to 531 families;

* 735 people received a total of 8,065 pieces of clothing;

* 70 families received monetary assistance totaling $2,196, mostly for utility bills

* There were 76 new clients

* Only eight people checked boxes on their assistance application form that asked if they were interested in Bible studies in their home, or to be visited or contacted by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

A "yard sale room" in a section of the center with items neatly displayed on tables and at rock-bottom prices raised $923. All of the money is, in turn, given to clients in the form of financial assistance.

"The last few months we've had a lot of requests for gas to go to doctor's appointments," said Mary Jo Pierce, a community fundraiser.

The center gives out $25 for gas per request in the form of a voucher redeemed at a nearby gas station.

The Greeneville Adventist Community Services Center is part of a worldwide network of community services centers associated with the Seventh-day Adventist faith, according to promotional literature.

The center is looking for more financial support from churches, businesses and individuals in the community.

"With more money, we could provide better food," Sharpe said. He thinks each food box, which includes two pounds of dried beans and one pound of rice, will carry a small household through one week.

He also said he wishes he could provide more financial assistance, since the demand far outpaces the resources they have.

"A whole lot of them (the clients) have lost their jobs," Sharpe said.

He said recently one "big, strong, husky man," around 50 years old and obviously able-bodied, came for food. "He lost his job and couldn't find another one," Sharpe said.

"As the weather gets colder, in October and November, folks will come in wanting help to buy kerosene," Sharpe said. He added, "So many of these people have only a disability check to get by on." He added, "$695 is not much to get you through a month."