Outside Beulah Baptist Church, Mavis Scrumpton stood on Friday volunteering with a mobile food pantry, and knew that as rapidly as tomorrow, she could be the one in need.
"From time to time, this is the only meal that several of them acquire," she said. "It's just joyful coming out and doing the work for the Lord. We are lucky to help others."
While 2007, the mobile food pantry has been hosted in the parking lot of the church on Rosa L. Parks Avenue. It is one of fairly little group of people outreach initiatives sponsored by the church. Through partnership with the Montgomery Area Food Bank, the program typically serves up an average of 100 Montgomery families.
"We know we need to be out here serving the Lord, and serving the food," said Amanda Taylor, a coordinator of mobile food pantry. "God told us to do what's right, so that's what we do."
Last year, about 3.8 million pounds of food was contributed through the mobile pantry program all through the River Region. The Montgomery Area Food Bank is the largest distributing food bank in Alabama, covering 35 of the state's 67 counties - or 24,921 square miles - with a population of more than 1.4 million. The coverage includes 11 of the 12 counties considered part of the "Black Belt," where living conditions are chronically some of the worst in the nation, Hinman said.
About 1.3 million pounds of food is in the storehouse at some time, and that is turned over between 10 and 13 times every year.
Items placed into cars on Friday at Beulah Baptist Church included potatoes, whole chickens, yogurt, bananas and mushrooms. Whatever food was not disseminated on Friday went to the church's Meals on Wheels program, in which 430 meals are provided every Monday.
"We try to honor a lot of senior citizens because they have to spend their money on other things, like medicine," Taylor said of the mobile food pantry. "And it's a good program."
"God called me to the church to serve," he said. "Outside of the walls of Sunday morning. We're here to serve."
https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2015/09/19/mobile-food-pantry-serve/72463832/
