In the seven years that First Baptist Church, Haleyville, has had a food pantry ministry, members have given out tons of food — literally. In fact, the pantry has distributed just over 1 million pounds of food to people in the area, according to James Caldwell of First, Haleyville, who helped start the ministry and remains one of its main volunteer coordinators.
“It’s helped so many people — mainly people who are unemployed or elderly,” Caldwell said. “God is really at work here.”
Caldwell recalled being inspired to begin this ministry while shopping at Sam’s Club one day to help stock the church’s small inventory of food they kept on hand to give to people in need.
“I thought, ‘We should be looking into doing something more than just having a few things in a closet in the hall to give away,’” he said. “I got to talking with some guys at church about it, and they said they’d help me if I planned it.”
And so Harvest of Hope was born.
When the pantry first started, the church relied on word of mouth to let the community know about its presence. Initially, Harvest of Hope served about 30 families, but it did not stay that small for long.
“Our area is big in the manufactured housing industry, so we were very affected by the economic downturn in 2008,” said First, Haleyville, Pastor Jim Cooley. “At its highest, our unemployment rate rose to 18 percent.”
As a result, the church’s food pantry ministry became even more relevant, soaring to meet the needs of about 400 families per month.
First, Haleyville, wanted to house the pantry in a building outside of their church, and a rental space became available right behind their church building. Thanks to countless donations, the space is well-equipped with necessities such as several deep freezers, sturdy shelving and a truck to go to and from the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama in Birmingham, which is how the pantry stocks its shelves. The food is distributed on the second and fourth Thursday of each month, and every eligible recipient or family is able to come “shop” once a month.
“There’s a worship service before the food is distributed, and that’s led by our church’s youth minister,” Cooley said. “Not only do they give folks groceries, but they also give them a lot of dignity. They carry people’s groceries out to their cars, and things like that mean a lot.”
Harvest of Hope is completely volunteer-run, and Cooley estimates that about 70 people give their time to be a part of the ministry. Volunteers tend to either be First, Haleyville, members or people who previously received food from the pantry when they were in need. For a church with 500 active members and about 250 in Sunday School each week, the participation in Harvest of Hope is seen as significant.
“A lot of our folks have found a place of ministry through the food pantry,” Cooley said. “For some of the people who might not be public folks teaching and leading the church, this is a real place of ministry for them. Over the years they’ve built relationships with fellow volunteers and with the people who come each month to get food.”
Caldwell said he hopes the ministry will continue to meet needs within the community, perhaps expanding to provide food in alternative ways (such as a backpack program that provides food to kids in need so they will have food over the weekend).
“We just hope we can keep it going, and we’d like it to be as big as it can get,” Caldwell said. “It wasn’t easy to start with, and we didn’t really have a clue what we were doing, but it’s grown so much and — in seven years — we’ve never run out of food.”
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