November 10, 2018
By: Dwayne Page
Members of the Smithville Cumberland Presbyterian Church and other volunteers braved the cold weather for several hours Saturday morning to make sure the less fortunate of our community have plenty to eat with the Thanksgiving holiday approaching.
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In partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank, the church held its biannual drive thru mobile food pantry serving up to 300 families regardless of their income status on a first come, first served basis.
Cars began lining up on South College Street as early as 4 a.m., five hours ahead of schedule, By the time the food drive began, the line of vehicles stretched all the way to near Green Brook Park.
Church Pastor Isaac Gray said Second Harvest brings in pallets of food on trucks. The food is then off loaded and organized in preparation for the distribution.
“It includes vegetables, fruit, canned goods, potatoes, and all sorts of different food items. We unload and sort it out in the alley behind Market Street and people drive through. They can get one box per household or two boxes depending upon how many people are in the car. That’s what makes this food drive unique is that people don’t even get out of their car. They stay in their vehicle the whole time and we do the work for them. They drive thru and we fill up their cars with boxes of food and we give it out until the cars stop coming or until we run out of food. Every time we have done this we have always had enough food for every person who has come through,” he said.
Gray said the church enjoys serving the community in this way and plans to keep on doing it at least twice a year, in the spring and fall.
“We love doing it and people seem to be very thankful and grateful for what we are doing. We just want to try to help our community and help people who need some food. That is what we are about,” said Gray.