our history

The York County Foster Closet was founded in 2016 by Caitlin Sund after she served in an orphanage in China. At that time her heart was burned for serving the Fatherless in her local community.

Quickly, a team of supporters grew and six years later they have had approximately 600 visits to the York County Foster Closet and have served over 1,00o children.  

During a visit to the York County Foster Closet foster and adoptive families are provided with items including baby equipment, car seats, diapers, furniture, clothing and gift cards.

Through their Frozen Meal Program, families can pick up a home made meal to provide their family during particularly busy days. These meals are donated through various churches and community organizations and housed on site at Defend the Fatherless. Since the inception of the Frozen Meal Program in 2019, 400 frozen meal shave been distributed.

In 2019 it became apparent that the needs of our local foster and adoptive families go beyond meeting physical and tangible needs.  The families are feeling isolated and are seeking community. Many of the children we serve have been in and out of school and are struggling to make passing grades.  

Parents, siblings and the the foster and adopted children are facing trauma and need counseling to help them through the unique challenges they face. Moms and dads report they are seeking like minded friendships. This is where Defend the Fatherless began.  

We aim to meet the social, emotional, educational, spiritual and financial needs of our families.  

It is our joy to announce that in February of 2022 after years of prayer and fundraising we finally moved to our own stand alone space in Fort Mill, SC. We are now able to hold regular connection events, special programming and serve families at The York County Foster Closet in a safer and more convenient way.