School project opens door to church food pantry - The Wilson Times (subscription)

School project opens door to church food pantry - The Wilson Times (subscription)

By Amanda Jenkins

Times Staff Writer

Daniels Chapel recently opened a food bank for the surrounding community of Black Creek.

Madison Davis, a freshman at Rocky Mount Academy, attends Daniels Chapel with her parents, Scott and Robbie Davis, and sister, Mackenzie. While they started the project to help others while also helping Madison collect volunteer hours for the community service project at her school, the community’s needs have exceeded their anticipation.

The food pantry assists an average of about 15 families per week and has served 65 families during its first month after opening on Aug. 1.

Its main beneficiaries are older adults looking for additional help with food because of their fixed income along with families that need extra help since funds are short during the month. Larger extended families living together are also needing assistance with groceries because of their large household size.

“I would have never believed when this idea was first discussed the impact this pantry would make on so many lives,” Madison Davis said. “We have people reaching out to us at our church that we never knew before. We have provided for families that are in need of food, but they have provided our church with a whole new outlook on outreach ministry. It is real people with real needs, and now we really have an opportunity to make a difference in their lives.”

Robbie Davis, Madison’s mother, said it has been emotional to realize so many people need assistance. One couple needed help because the husband had recently been placed on disability, and they only received a small amount of food stamp funds. They were not able to buy food and pay bills on the family income.

Madison Davis has already learned much from the project.

“It takes more than having an idea to make something like this happen. It takes time,” said Robbie Davis. But the biggest thing Madison has learned is that there is a need for the community.

Grocery stores in the Black Creek area are not easily accessible on foot, and the Davis family presented the pantry idea to Daniels Chapel, where the logistics started in April. The pantry idea started before a missions trip that Madison took with her youth group to Pennsylvania this past summer.

Robbie Davis said a lot of people wanted to be a part of helping others. The church’s old parsonage was already transformed in use as the youth center called The Lighthouse. With the kitchen and dining room vacant, the idea to store food pantry items and begin a ministry for outreach there became a reality.

The church donates canned goods, boxed meals, household items and paper products to the inventory. The youth at the church stocks the shelves and keeps the inventory rotated. And an average of 10 volunteers from Daniels Chapel open the food bank to the community on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon each week. During the month of September, the pantry will be open the second and fourth weeks of the month, which will be on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 13 and 14 and Sept. 27 and 28.

The pantry is self- supported by Daniels Chapel, where members also make monetary donations to the project.

“We have an overwhelming amount of support from our church,” said Robbie Davis, noting the project has united the youth with the elders of the church.

“The youth have been overwhelmed by it all,” Robbie Davis added.

Youth have been eager to help and have taken a lot of ownership of the project, she said. They reach out for donations and help with canned food drives.

The Davis family said the food pantry was a way to be a part of a project from the ground floor up where Madison could watch it grow and develop. Rocky Mount Academy currently requires 50 hours of community service volunteer hours from students from their freshman year to their senior year.

The family planned on starting out small with the pantry and they hope to eventually expand.

Madison Davis said it has been amazing to watch food head out the door for those in need, and the next minute, food comes right back in the same door to restock the shelves.

Some people who have been to the pantry for food have returned to volunteer with the pantry.

People who are not members of Daniels Chapel have stopped in and volunteered because they want to be a part of the ministry.

“They are becoming part of our family now,” Robbie Davis said. “As for those who have volunteered and been a part of this ministry, we are all touched by what this pantry has done for our lives. It seems as if we wanted to do this to help those in need, but those who visit the pantry for help have provided us with something we needed. We needed to know that hunger is real and we needed to work together as a church family to make this happen for our community.”

Community members can receive from the food pantry once a month. The only requirement for those in need to receive donations is that they show their identification.

The pantry is located beside the church at 4828 Frank Price Church Road south of Wilson.

For donations to help the food pantry, contact Daniels Chapel at 252-243-2013.