4 minute read
Feeding the hungry through
Feeding the hungry through collaborative ministry
By Bonnie Shaw, News Writer
“Where do you go if you can’t go to the church? That’s where people go when they are in need. It’s mission and ministry in hand, so when we’re serving people and being on mission, we are also making disciples,” Linda Stevens, cochair of the Bethlehem Baptist Church Food Pantry in Mansfield, said.
Stevens’ passion for combining missions and ministry is what compelled her to restart the church’s food pantry a few years ago. She and two or three other volunteers met every Wednesday morning to pass out food to families in need in front of the church. This food pantry became a pivotal resource for the church’s community with the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of Stevens’ favorite parts of the food pantry is building meaningful relationships with the families, as they saw them weekly. As Stevens and the other volunteers become more acquainted with the families, they were able to give customized groceries to them, such as diapers for families with infants.
Marilyn Harris, ministry leader at the food pantry, shared a story about a young woman who used to come to the food pantry monthly. One day, she came and asked for prayer, because her family was selling their house and moving to Alabama, where the cost of living was lower. They prayed, and the house sold within a month. The woman came back to the food pantry to pray with them again before she moved, and she also presented them with a check.
“She said, ‘you have fed my family for so long, and I want to give something back,’” Harris remembered. Bethlehem Baptist Church loves stories like this young woman’s, who came seeking physical help and found spiritual help along the way. Helping people until they can help themselves is another common theme at the food pantry, and it is one that has particularly evident with the onset of the pandemic, where more people than ever have found themselves in need of temporary assistance. As unemployment is on the rise, the church is working to feed as many people as possible until they can return to their jobs.
The food pantry has seen a huge increase in the number of families coming to receive groceries. They have gone from serving an average of 30 families to assisting 150 families weekly. Each car has a family of four to six people in it. In order to keep up with demand, Bethlehem Baptist volunteers pack a surplus of groceries based on the last week’s attendance. Harris explained that if they served 150 families one week, they prepare 175 grocery bags the next week. Their goal is to never turn anyone in need away.
Cooperative ministry
To meet the rising needs, now 25 volunteers come to pass out food each Wednesday. The food pantry is receiving donations from a variety of sources in order to keep up with this growing need in their community. Church members and local stores have provided donations weekly, and the church also gets food
from the Tarrant County Food Bank. The church has also teamed up with Texas Baptist Men (TBM).
Since the beginning of the pandemic, TBM has been hard at work. They have supplied 15,000 masks for medical professionals and first responders, 1,200 pairs of protective glasses for Baylor Scott & White Health and 100,000 meals through church pantries across Texas.
Rand Jenkins, a TBM director of development, comes out weekly to assist with the transportation of food from the Tarrant County Food Pantry. Stevens explained that Jenkins has been a dedicated volunteer and extremely helpful as they seek to help their community.
Michael Evans, Sr., pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church and president of Texas Baptists, explained that the partnership with TBM to provide food is just one example of the importance of collaboration between Baptists. TBM is supported by the Texas Baptists Cooperative Program, which is made possible through the donations of Baptist churches around Texas.
“We’re making sure that those families who are in need of food or groceries are getting taken care of. We are blessed as a church family to be a part of the BGCT,” Evans said. “When we all come together people get taken care of. And that’s who we are as Texas Baptists. When times get hard, we lock our arms together and we go to work for the Kingdom.”
