With unemployment and consumer food prices rising, business is sadly booming for the 1,500 domestic hunger ministries that receive support from the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund.
While 80 percent of the World Hunger Fund is earmarked for the International Mission Board to fight world hunger, the remaining 20 percent is dedicated to feed the hungry of North America and is administered by the North American Mission Board (NAMB).
Some 3.5 million meals were served to North America’s hungry in 2007 and as a result 35,000 professions of faith were recorded throughout the continent. Because of careful management and low overhead, the cost of a meal at a Southern Baptist hunger ministry averages about 40 cents, according to Sandy Wood, hunger ministry specialist on NAMB’s servant and ministry evangelism team.
More than 67,000 volunteers assisted at hunger ministry sites throughout the United States in 2007, Wood said. Some 7,200 new hunger ministry volunteers were trained in evangelism during the year as well. The gospel was shared with more than 580,000 visitors to Southern Baptist hunger ministries.
For missionaries like Angelia Bostick in Brownwood, Texas, and Steve Faith in New Albany, Ind. — both longtime veterans of feeding ministries — the workdays are long, hard and extremely tiring. No one could blame them if they quit tomorrow. But they won’t.
For 15 years, Bostick has headed up the Heart of Texas Good Samaritan Ministry in rural Brown County, located three hours south of Dallas. One-third of the county’s 40,000 residents live in poverty.
Bostick, 51, is a NAMB missionary. Most of her financial support for the food ministry comes from domestic World Hunger Funds via area Southern Baptist churches and the local Brown Baptist Association. But the Brownwood food pantry and warehouse also is an inter-denominational effort that involves about 200 Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Nazarene and Assembly of God volunteers. The facility requires 20 volunteers a day to handle food distribution.
“Southern Baptists started the ministry, but there are no theological differences about what Jesus said about helping the poor,” said Bostick, a long-time resident of Brownwood. “We want to work together because the resources here are so limited.”
Brownwood’s economic situation is fragile, Bostick said. Her ministry added 50 new families at the end of July, on top of the 600 families it normally serves each month. In November and December, the number of families requesting food typically expands to 800 because of seasonal layoffs by local plants and factories.
“The majority of the people who come in are elderly or disabled on fixed incomes. Brown County has a higher percentage of elderly than the Texas average,” Bostick said. “We also have a lot of the working poor, because there are not a lot of good paying jobs around Brownwood. Most make minimum wage.” Sixty percent of the “customers” are Anglo, 30 percent Hispanic and the remaining 10 percent African-American.
A thousand miles away from Bostick, it takes a lot of “Faith” — Steve Faith, that is — to run the Southeast Indiana Baptist Food Warehouse in New Albany, Ind. Faith, 64, is administrative community evangelism director for the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana.
Unlike Bostick — whose feeding pantry distributes directly to families — Faith is more like a “wholesaler” of free food for the hungry. He gets large ministries such as “Feed the Children” or “Operation Blessing” to donate pallets of food, paper goods and other products needed by families. He also asks large firms like Tyson Foods to donate their products.
No associational funds are ever spent on the food or products themselves, which are always donated and then distributed free of charge to churches or other hunger ministries with 501(c)3 charitable tax status.
“Our (the association’s) only expense is rental of trucks and the diesel fuel we need,” Faith said. With diesel fuel now up to as much as $5 a gallon, the association’s budget is stretched thin.
“I don’t get the world hunger funds directly,” Faith said. “We have 63 churches in our association and nine of them get the hunger funds. But we couldn’t do without them.” Faith is co-supported by the Indiana state convention and NAMB.
From January until the end of July 2008, the warehouse received and distributed 1.5 million pounds of “product,” Faith said. He figures he contributes some 90,000 meals a month in the south Indiana area.
“We can unload a tractor trailer of any product in 12 minutes,” Faith said. “Many loads come in at night. Sometimes I don’t know exactly what I have until I get it here.”
He said whether the load comes in at night or early the next morning, it will be unloaded and turned around in less than a day — sometimes in 90 minutes. Perishable items like Tyson’s chicken get top priority.
Faith, who established the warehouse — located on one end of the associational office — in 2000, works 12-hour days, six days a week. He has to be on the scene when the food or other products are delivered, which takes him away from his wife many evenings.
“I do it because I just love people,” Faith said. “Brother, there are people out there and they really need help. We have more needs than product. It’s currently worse than I’ve ever seen it.” (BP)
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