Helping fill the plate

Sherri Brown/GBC

Dave Shoeck, left, and Marcia McIntyre load boxes and bags during food distribution at Mulberry Baptist Association offices. The two are part of a volunteer force of 55 that help feed as many as 300 families every month during once-a-week food distribution. The association's ministry has seen a spike in the need for help with food, but resources such as World Hunger funds are not always able to meet those needs.

“Is there anything special we can pray about for you today?”

That’s one of the first questions people hear when they come to the food pantry run by Mulberry Baptist Association. The answers vary, but almost all are heartbreaking.

“Pray that I don’t lose my house.”

“My husband is disabled and now he’s got to have his gall bladder out.”

“My son is on the run. Pray that he’ll come home and turn himself in to the police.”

They come to the tiny offices of Mulberry Baptist Association to take home a few bags of food, but more often than not they also come looking for a comforting hug, a word of hope, and the knowledge that God loves and cares for them.

The 19 Baptist churches in the association started the ministry in 2003. In the beginning it primarily helped single elderly adults who were on a fixed income.

Clients can come for food once a month and in the first years, 10 or 12 came on Tuesday mornings.

These days, however, volunteers will pack up food and counsel with as many as 110 families every Tuesday.

It gets crowded during those once-a-week morning sessions. Usually, there’s a line waiting outside, but on recent icy cold mornings, a dozen or more people stand along the walls of the outer office, talking to each other, waiting for their names to be called.

“A year ago we saw 60 families in a month; now we’ll average more than 300 families every month,” said Tommy Fountain, associational missionary with Mulberry Association.

Like all of Georgia, a failing economy has hit this county hard.

“There’s a good bit of poverty in the area, but we’re seeing more and more people out of work, hit hard. Recently, we’ve helped many middle class families that just don’t have money for food,” Fountain said. “Our clientele has changed drastically. We have some who come and just cry. It’s tough times right now.”

Mulberry Association relies on volunteers to run the ministry – about 55 people staff the weekly food distribution – and churches to donate food and funds to keep the pantry shelves full.

They also rely heavily on funds from Georgia Baptist World Hunger offerings.

“We order our food through SNAP and USDA government programs and we also get donations from churches,” said Tammy Massey, a volunteer from Walnut Fork Church in Hoschton, who organizes the distribution part of the ministry.

Purchasing through those programs and food banks allows the association to stretch the dollars even further. Canned food and dry goods are available for about 15 to 18 cents a pound.

Still, the shelves are looking sparse these days.

“We put the word out and the churches respond well,” Fountain said. “The World Hunger funds really make a difference, though.”

When Georgia Baptists give to the World Hunger offering – usually taken in October – 100 percent of the offering is used directly for world hunger. Of that, 10 percent stays in Georgia, distributed to ministries like the one at Mulberry Association. The other 90 percent is divided into two ministries: 20 percent is sent to the North American Mission Board to support hunger projects in the U.S. and 80 percent is sent to the International Mission Board for hunger ministries including water well drilling, agricultural education, and currently hunger relief in Haiti.

World Hunger offerings can be taken any time of the year and sent to the Georgia Baptist Convention. For promotional resources or more information, see www.gabaptist.org or contact Ricky Thrasher at (770) 936-5223, (800) RING GBC, or rthrasher@gabaptist.org.

You and your church may send offerings to:
Dr. J. Robert White
Exec. Dir., GBC
6405 Sugarloaf Parkway Duluth, GA 30097