Freshman elementary education major Anna Freeman lends a hand at Boone United Methodist Church Saturday. The women’s basketball team also volunteers for the monthly event. Photo by Tommy Penick

by MEGAN NORTHCOTE
Intern Lifestyles Reporter

Two years ago, former service ministries coordinator for the Appalachian Wesley Foundation and senior technical photography major Robin Q. Brooks was looking for a way the foundation could give back to the community.

Around the same time, Louise G. Harris, member of Boone United Methodist Church, heard about a non-profit, non-denominational food relief program new to the Boone area: Angel Food Ministries.

Brooks then contacted the church to help the newly established Angel Food Ministries host site reach out to people in need.

“It was a great outlet for connecting with people in the community and serving them,” Brooks said. “It’s a great way to get to serve alongside either older or younger people of the community.”   

Founded in 1994 by Joe and Linda Wingo to help 34 families in Monroe, Ga. who had lost their jobs after an industrial plant closing, Angel Food Ministries now provides food relief to approximately 500,000 people in 35 states each month, according to angelfoodministries.com.

Participants order a $30 box of food at the beginning of each month, enough food to feed either a family of four for one week or one senior citizen for one month.

Participants can pay online and food stamps are now accepted.

According to the Web site, the food comes from “the best producers and vendors of high quality food” and is distributed from the warehouse in Georgia to host sites across the country. 

On the third Saturday of every month at Boone United Methodist, volunteers, including those from the Wesley Foundation and Appalachian women’s basketball team, package and distribute boxes of food.

Many families are regular recipients, and the Hospitality House of Boone and the Watauga County Health Department, among others, encourage community members to utilize the service.

In October, 109 boxes were distributed from Boone United Methodist.

Last Saturday, 130 boxes were distributed, and because of the holiday season, even more food orders are expected for the month of December, Harris said.

Harris said the fruit and vegetable box and the signature box, containing turkey or chicken, are the two most popular choices.

Each month, approximately 35 boxes of food are donated by church and community members, while the rest are donated via the host site’s benevolent fund, the accumulation of Angel Food Ministries’ $1 donations to each host site for every box purchased from the previous month.

Since 1994, $12 million was contributed to host sites’ benevolent funds throughout the country to help buy more boxes of food.

Boone United Methodist is one of five host sites in the High Country. Others include Brushy Fork Baptist Church, Laurel Springs Baptist Church, Bald Mountain Baptist Church and Proffit’s Grove Baptist Church.

Dean Winkler, director of Proffit’s Grove Baptist’s Angel Food Ministries said their program began three months ago, when church members came up with the idea of starting a food bank.

Located in Meat Camp, Proffit’s Grove hopes to expand their distribution count well above the 45 orders distributed in September and October.

“This is a volunteer-run organization, where people out of the church have stepped up and want to help,” Winkler said. “It’s a blessing to be able to work with the people and…to talk with them and socialize with them.”

Like Winkler, Harris believes Angel Food Ministries is about more than serving people food, but about building relationships and increasing communication.

Harris remembers one food recipient who lost his job, and within a few weeks, Angel Food Ministry volunteers paid him to work odd jobs.

“When you’re there serving, people say it doesn’t look like you’re doing a lot of work,” Brooks said. “But when they don’t have volunteers, they’re really missed.”

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