‘Feed the hungry’ taken literally by local church
By RAY WYCHE
Staff Writer
The building housing the Grace of God Holiness Ministry may not be as elaborate as some houses of worship in the area but to many people down on their luck and hungry, it’s a beautiful structure.
The rambling building on East Columbus Street in Whiteville is home of Harvest Table Inc., and its Sunday school rooms, hallways and other available spaces in the church are filled with freezers and shelves loaded with cases of perishable and non-perishable foods.
Around noon seven days each week, a few people are scurrying around inside the building, filling cardboard boxes with foodstuffs ranging from Black Forest hams to dried beans and peas.
Food boxes are passed out at the church around noon three days per week, and after worship services on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Deliveries are made to home-bound recipients two days weekly.
All the foodstuffs are factory-packed; no cooked meals are served and no pre-packaged food is opened and portioned out.
The rambling structure has a walk-in cooler room for salads and fresh vegetables and a walk-in freezer for meats and ice cream. There are several home-type freezers filled with frozen foods.
The building’s interior resembles a jumbled-up supermarket, minus the checkout counters; the food is free to people who have been certified as being truly needy.
On the sidewalk outside, people begin gathering just before noon on days food is distributed at the church, quietly talking or just looking into space.
When the doors open, these people file in an orderly fashion, each giving their names and the number of people in their families to a church worker who records the information in a notebook.
The needy receive their boxes and once again the hungry and helpless are fed.
The president of Harvest Table is the Rev. Terry L. Dove of Bladenboro, pastor of Grace of God Holiness Church. Harvest Table Director Larry Dew and his wife Celia, and Tony and Marsha Brown and other volunteers help with the never-ending tasks of separating the donated food and methodically placing different foods in each box so that balanced meals can be prepared.
The Grace of God Church donates the space for Harvest Table and each month absorbs most of a steep electric bill, the result of the multitude of freezers in service.
For the past six years, workers from the Grace of God Church, with a membership of 40 to 50 people, have been passing out food to the less fortunate of the community.
Many times, the small number of members reach into their pockets to help buy some food items not kept in stock, and to maintain the church building.
There is a grant that helps some but grant money is restricted for the most part for food purchases.
“We (the church) don’t get much out of it,” Larry Dew says, “just enough to pay for the paper work involved.”
To the church volunteers, it’s a daily labor of love as they move about quickly and quietly, knowing which food item is located in what spot in the building.
The volunteer workers make sure that each box has a variety of food items so that several complete and nutritious meals can be prepared from the contents of each box.
Toiletry items such as toothpaste and some over-the-counter drugs as well as baby food and soft drinks are also included in the boxes.
Dove sees Harvest Table as a way to take the church’s message to hurting people and considers the many tasks that make the program work to be a blessing.
“God has blessed us,” he says. “God has been good to us.”
By necessity, Harvest Table does not hand out food indiscriminately; only people who have been certified as genuinely in need by various government agencies are recipients of the food.
Recipients of food must sign a release allowing Harvest Table to inquire of agencies and institutions about the applicant’s financial condition before food is distributed.
“We have Social Services, the Health Department and the Department of Aging sending people to us,” Dew says.
Dove estimates that from 500 to 600 people per week are fed with food boxes distributed by Harvest Table.
The majority of what Harvest Table hands out is donated by two area companies—Smithfield Foods in Tar Heel and Food Lion supermarkets.
“Food Lion has been very supportive to what we do,” Dove says.
“They’ve been a great help to us,” Larry Dew says.
The donated food is not damaged merchandize, Dove says.
“Ninety-five percent of what we have here is not outdated,” he says.
It’s merchandise that in some cases has been replaced by newer brands or in new-styled packaging.
Some of the give-away food is not donated but is purchased by funds donated by church members and others.
“Some of this stuff we bought,” Dove says. “We all donate out of our pockets.” The funds are used to buy food from the Food Bank in Wilmington.
Harvest Table struggles to raise funds to keep the operation going at its present level, Dove says.
The organization has received grants in the past and continues to apply for assistance from governmental agencies, but money for food is always needed.
“So many churches are well off,” Dew says. “We’ve got plenty of people to do the work if they will help us,” he adds.
There is a container on the church parking lot where people can drop off used clothing, which is donated to the needy.
Dove emphasizes that no donated money goes for expenses of Grace of God Church; Harvest Table is not a component of the church even though it uses church property as its operating site.
“We’re working with different fundraisers,” he adds.
Harvest Table is a 501 (c) (3) organization which means that all donations are tax deductible.
Dove has plans to increase the scope of his group’s social ministry. “We’re in the process of opening a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility,” he says. “We are in dire need of a facility to help drug addicts and alcoholics.”
“There’s a need,” Dove says. “We have a lot of homeless people in Columbus County.”
Anyone who wishes to contribute to Harvest Table’s food fund can mail their contributions to Harvest Table Inc., Post Office Box 402, Whiteville, N.C. 28472.