by the Reverend Suzanne Smith
How one small church has made a big impact in her community by feeding souls and hungry bellies…
It started with a little blessing box beside the church and has become a major ministry to the community, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The blessing box evolved into a weekly Houston Food Bank distribution site. Then, in the middle of the third month of operations, the pandemic hit. At this time, the organizers pivoted to a drive-through distribution, which at its peak has been visited by over 400 families a week. The parish hall, previously used for Christian formation and fellowship, became a food storage warehouse for pallets upon pallets of non-perishable food items.
The mobile food pantry has been providing food in Alvin on a weekly basis since December 6, 2019. We partnered with the Alvin/Manvel and Houston Food Bank in order to bring fresh food and produce to Alvin, an area that struggles with food insecurity. 51.7% of Alvin Independent School District (AISD) students qualify under Title 1 for Free or Reduced-Cost breakfast and lunch. The district has 18 Title 1 campuses.
Every Thursday morning, the Houston Food Bank brings a refrigerated truck containing 8,000 to 10,000 pounds of fresh food and vegetables. The truck is set up in the Grace Church parking lot. Before COVID, volunteers from Grace and other community organizations unloaded the food from the truck, bagged it, and then the guests would shop each fresh food station.
When COVID began, in one week, Grace seamlessly transitioned to a drive-thru mobile food pantry underneath the beautiful oak trees in front of our church. Our first attempt provided food for 281 families. The families were given 35-40 pounds of food, and we estimate around 1,000 people were fed in Alvin because of these efforts!
The drive-thru option allowed food to be given out in a safe way by the volunteers boxing up the food and then guests driving through the parking lot and the food delivered to their trunks. Some of these folks waited in the car line for up to two hours to get their food. It was calm and ordered, and all who received food were profoundly grateful.
Since the first mobile food pantry, the people of Grace, along with other churches and members of the community, have distributed nearly 500,000 pounds of food through the mobile food pantry to over 30,000 people in Alvin.
We have also expanded our Blessing Box ministry to include an outside Blessing Refrigerator. A team of parishioners keep the fridge stocked with cold items such as milk, juice, butter, cheese, and eggs. Combined, the Blessing Box and Fridge see between 65 and 100 visitors a day.
Grace has long been a beacon in the Alvin community, and over the last year it has become a vital component to the well-being of her citizens through our food initiatives. We said “YES” to God in one way, and the doors kept opening, so we have continued to walk through them. This ministry is more than a blessing to Grace. It is a blessing and gift to the Alvin community.