Faith Communities – Impact on Hunger

In addition to the thousands of food banks across the country, there are many hundreds of thousands of smaller initiatives taking place that often work independently or in conjunction with food bank activity. One of the most visible is the work being done by faith-based communities.

Last June, Alabama Possible hosted a hunger workshop called “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread” in Mobile, AL. It was attended by over 50 members of the greater Mobile faith community and boasted a number of speakers including those from Angel Food Ministries and Providence Farm Community Gardens. The Alabama Cooperative Extension Service (ACES) explained some of their training programs and shared tips for choosing a garden site, choosing crops, rotation, pollination, soil preparation, and watering.

Seven months later, the workshop seems to have been powerful. “Your conference had a major impact,” said Diane Baldwin, pastor at Georgetown-Chunchula UMC. “It created a better network, brought us closer to other projects in the area, and it showed us different ideas and people we could go to.” Her congregation implemented the following programs:

• mobile food pantries, which they operate with the Bay Area Food Bank, distributing 5,000-6,000 pounds of food per day;
• a drive-through food pantry which serves about 100 families at a time, who schedule a time in advance to drive by and pick up 60 pound boxes of food;
• opportunities for clients to meet DHR representatives to learn about SNAP and other longer-term government food assistance programs;
• snack backpacks for school kids who are at risk of hunger to take home over the weekend;
• an emergency food pantry for community members who are in immediate need; and,
• regular food deliveries to elderly shut-ins.

The Hunger Forum welcomes the participation of any food assistance program in the ongoing conversation about hunger relief. We hope you’ll share your experiences on this site in the coming months.