by Elizabeth Butler
The Valdosta woman’s husband had surgery and was out of work for weeks, making finances tight. A friend gave her a box of food from Angel Food Ministries, which feeds a family of four for a week for only $30. Later, when the Valdosta woman’s husband was back at work and finances had improved, she went to purchase a box for them. While in Evangel Temple, 2045 Clay Road, a host church for Angel Food Ministries, she heard another woman talking about being turned down for food stamps and getting a call from her husband on the way home saying he had been laid off. The Valdosta woman knew what she had to do then: She said she would pay for the woman’s box. The woman wept.
It may be the best-kept secret in the Valdosta area.
Angel Food Ministries, a nonprofit, nondenominational organization which feeds more than 500,000 families a month in 35 states, is feeding 200 families monthly in the Valdosta area — regardless of income, according to Deacon Tony Christopher of Evangel Temple Church.
Christopher coordinators the volunteers, the semi driver from KLLM Transport Services which brings the food, and the distribution of the food from the semi to his church and to the vans which come from other host sites and participating churches.
Nationally, it takes more than 45,000 volunteers and about 210 employees to get the job done, according to the AFM Web site. Angel Food Ministries distributes to more than 5,200 volunteer host sites across the nation, who in turn provide boxes of Angel Food to individual families.
A regular box of food, which includes steaks and such name brands as Sara Lee and feeds a family of four for a week, costs $30. The food, delivered the third Saturday of each month and boxed by Evangel Temple volunteers, is available to anyone. Orders must be placed two weeks ahead of the delivery. Other churches, Valdosta’s First United Methodist, Brown’s Chapel Holiness in Hahira, Morven Baptist in Brooks County, St. John AME and River Street Church of Christ, get the food at Temple Evangel each month to distribute from their churches.
Angel Food Ministries is “dedicated to providing grocery relief and financial support to communities throughout the United States,” according to its Web site.
The program was begun in 1994 when Pastors Joe and Linda Wingo of Monroe “found their hearts going out” to the families of many of the local families in their Georgia city affected by the recent industrial plant closings. On their back porch, the first Angel Food distribution fed 34 families. Over the next years, other churches wanted to be get involved, and Angel Food began feeding hundreds of families across the Southeast. Now, Angel Food feeds more than 500,000 families a month in 35 states.
Angel Food Ministries crosses denominational lines and has “spread the good news of the gospel of Christ through salvation tracts that are placed in each food order,” its Web site states.
At Evangel Temple, the volunteering is a family affair for the Christophers, including Tony’s 3-year-old daughter, Aaralyn, who puts the salvation tracts in the boxes. Other members of the family who help out with the food ministry are Tony’s children, Najee, 16, Samuel, 12, and Cameron, 10, and Tony’s wife, Tanika, Evangel Temple secretary. It was Tanika who related the story of a woman being helped by Angel Food Ministries, who later helped another woman in need.
“That was awesome,” Tanika said. “That is what the ministry is all about.”
Evangel Temple always purchases an extra box and gave one to the second woman’s mother, Tony said.
“They were really grateful we reached out and did that for them,” Tanika said.
It was Evangel Temple’s pastor and founder, Dr. Henry E. Wright II, who heard about Angel Food Ministries in the Atlanta area and thought it was needed in the Valdosta area, Tony said.
Evangel Temple volunteers completed the paperwork and necessary training to become a host site for Angel Food Ministries. At the time, the closest drop site was in Baconton, Tony said. For more than a year, a group of dedicated volunteers traveled 1.5 hours (86 miles) one way one Saturday a month to pick up the food for customers in Valdosta. Tony said they used church vans and personal vehicles to transport the food back to Valdosta.
In 2007, Evangel Temple was designated as a drop site, and since that time, the Angel Food deliveries for the Valdosta area arrive at Evangel Temple.
“Other churches in the area have since seen the need and value of this outstanding community outreach ministry,” Tony said. “One Saturday a month, we come together to enjoy a time of fun and fellowship as we unload the truck and distribute the food.
“Although the truck delivers at Evangel Temple, local churches transport the food back to their respective churches to fill orders that were placed at their locations. They have a wonderful time of fellowship and ministry together. This outreach could not be done without the volunteers.”
Among the Evangel Temple volunteers are 82-year-old retired schoolteacher Ethel Keys; Keith Blake, human resources manager for Convergys; and William Best. Other volunteers are Ann Barnas of Barnas and Smith, a human resources firm downtown; David Finney of Brown’s Chapel Holiness Church; and Leann Johnson.
Tony said he learned firshand of the need and value of the Angel Food Ministries, having a grandmother receive Social Security.
“I didn’t realize some of the things that elderly people are struggling with, such as making a decision, ‘Do I eat or get medication?’”
For the elderly, for those falling between the cracks unable to receive food stamps, for those needing temporary assistance before they can get back on their feet — for anyone, Angel Food Ministries may provide welcome relief. And for those wanting to help others in need, the food purchased is a fully tax-deductible charitable donation.
The Wingos, who began the ministry, also pastor Emmanuel Praise Church in the Georgia city called Good Hope.
And “Good Hope” is exactly what they’re providing for half a million hungry people in the United States of America.
