It’s 6 a.m. on the third Thursday of the month, and Doyle Prescott, pastor of Northern Heights Baptist Church, Opp, and Roy Adams, a church member and dairy manager of the local Farmer’s IGA grocery story, are on their way to the Montgomery Area Food Bank.
They go on Thursdays because it’s the day Adams gets off work, and he devotes that time once a month to Northern Heights Baptist’s community food program, which is designed to help people over 60 in the community who are in need.
The Covington Baptist Association church chose this particular ministry because “we felt like the group we needed to help the most was the elderly who are on a fixed income,” Prescott said.
Adams agrees. “By the time they buy medicine and pay their bills, they don’t have much for buying food,” he said.
Prescott and Adams arrive in time for their 8 a.m. appointment at the food bank, and by 10:30, they’ve made their purchase of about 1,800 pounds of food and driven back to Northern Heights. There about 15 regular volunteers commit their morning to the task of sorting the food into banana boxes Adams asks a friend in the produce department at Farmer’s IGA to save.
Times are tough
“It’s a small community and everyone has it rough,” said Tina Thompson, one of the volunteers and the church’s Woman’s Missionary Union director. “We like to see that the ones we can help have enough to eat.”
Once the boxes are prepared, some family members of those receiving food come by Northern Heights to pick up their boxes.
“It’s a blessing that the churches reach out and help the elderly like that,” said Peggy Sasser, whose mother and in-laws all benefit from the food program. “It’s just a blessing that they’ll take their time out of their daily schedule.”
The morning is coming to a close when Prescott and Adams load the remaining boxes onto a trailer hitched to the back of the church van. The two make their rounds, delivering the heavy boxes to the people without any family to pick up their food.
“It’s a blessing,” Prescott said of the delivery time. “Sometimes people have prayer requests, and we spend some time praying with them.”
This part of the day — visiting the recipients in their homes and seeing the expressions on their faces when they receive their food — is the highlight of Adams’ day. “I wish we had more people to help deliver so we could spend more time visiting,” he said.
Many of the recipients live alone, and the time spent in fellowship is part of the ministry as well.
The program currently is limited to 20 families because of the time and resources the small church has available for it, and there is a waiting list of people applying for aid. “We’re limited to how many we can reach, and if more churches got involved, we could help more people,” Thompson said.
Adams seconds that suggestion. “It’s good for any church to do,” he said. “There are so many families who could use help.”
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