– Rev Richard Russell, Pastor of Gaston Charge
(Oak Grove, Pleasant Hill, and Shiloh UMCs)
I started attending the program School for ‘Food Justice, Faith and Storytelling’ in January of 2021. That program was a part of RAFI-USA’s Come to the Table programs. The School for FJFS was to educate faith leaders on the root causes of hunger and explore the narratives that shape our understanding of hunger. From this program, I heard about a seminar “What’s a Food Hub.”
I attended the seminar about a Food Hub. I was interested in what a Food Hub was doing for the community and local farmers. They were working with local farmers gathering fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, and meat and packaging them together for Food Pantries and Churches to distribute to the communities they serve.
I serve three rural churches in the Gaston Charge (Shiloh, Oak Grove, Pleasant Hill). We did not have a food ministry program in the churches. I thought this would be a good way for us to help the local farmers and at the same time meet a need of the community. I presented the idea to the Council members of Shiloh and they were excited about it. They asked, ‘When can we start?’
The Food Hub, ‘Working Landscapes’ which was located in Warrenton, offers three different food boxes. The first would only contain fresh fruits and vegetables. The second would contain one pound of meat or a dozen eggs and fresh fruits and vegetables. The third would contain fresh fruits and vegetables along with either two pounds of meat or one pound of meat and a dozen eggs. All of the contents of these food boxes came from local farmers from places like Nashville, Youngsville, Vicksboro, Ridgeway, and other local towns.
We decided to try for three months (June 2021 – August) to receive 20 Food Boxes containing fresh fruits and vegetables. We asked the congregation to help with identifying those that could use a Food Box of fresh food. We also asked for donations to help support this ministry. After the initial three months, we decided to continue another two months until the end of October.
Up to this point, the Food Box distribution was to friends and family members of Shiloh. After having a conversation with Resourceful Communities representative (Jaimie McGirt), it was suggested that we partner with either another church or the local school system to expand our distribution. We decided to connect with the middle school here in Gaston.
I was able to contact the Social Worker assigned to the Middle School and explained to her what we would like to do. Our goal was to distribute 12 Food Boxes to 12 families that attended the Middle School. We would also distribute 12 boxes to families and friends of Shiloh.
We decided to receive 24 boxes starting in April 2022 and ending in October. In the past 2 years, we have distributed 244 Food Boxes to residents of the Northampton and Halifax Counties.
We have not only helped residents with quality fresh food, but we have supported the local farmers in the counties that surround us.
With the help of Working Landscapes, we feel this is a win-win situation. We purchase food from the local farms (thru Working Landscapes), they package it, and we distribute it to local families.