While the covered-dish supper has long been a staple of fellowship in Baptist churches, one congregation in Georgia is learning that in today’s economy food can also be a powerful tool for ministry.
First Baptist Church in Dalton launched “Soul Food,” a church supper for needy families, in 2008. That is about the time the economy began to unravel in the North Georgia community nicknamed the “Carpet Capital of the World.”
For years Dalton boasted nearly full employment, due to growth in the building trades. When an economic recession put the brakes on construction nationwide, the city’s 33,000 residents suddenly had one of the highest unemployment rates in the United States.
While the economic outlook is improving, between 300 and 400 underemployed and unemployed residents still show up every other Tuesday evening for a free meal and hospitality in the church’s fellowship hall, says Steve Powell, a former restaurant owner who felt a calling to become First Baptist’s food services manager in 2013.
“It’s tough to make ends meet,” Powell says. “We’re helping to alleviate some of that pressure on families.”
Powell closed the Little Dipper, a local eatery known for its soups, sandwiches and desserts open for 10 years, when his in-law co-owners retired in January 2013. Powell, who previously owned a landscaping business and also worked in warehousing and manufacturing, prayed about the next chapter in his life and landed on the idea of applying his business experience to the ministry.
“I really feel like food service needs to be a viable ministry and not just looked at as a back-burner need that has to be filled,” says Powell, who in addition to Soul Food and Wednesday night church suppers is responsible for events such as feeding seniors once a month and 70 to 80 kids typically enrolled in day care every weekday.
Several years ago a property owner allowed the church to use a quarter-acre of land for a garden to grow fresh produce for Soul Food and to give away to people in need. While not a theologian, Powell noticed that many of the Bible stories about Jesus include some mention of eating or food, and he began looking for ways to expand the church’s food-services ministry.
He found it outside the back door of the church kitchen. Volunteers transferred sod from a narrow strip of green next to a sidewalk and put in a 12 foot-by-50 foot plot large enough for three-and-a-half rows of lettuce for 9 9 use in preparing the church’s Wednesday night meal.
Each harvest produced enough lettuce for 300-plus servings, with half of the crop picked each time. “It has just been amazing what this little patch of earth has brought forth, and all just right outside our back door,” says Courtney Allen, minister of community ministry and missions at First Baptist.
Over time tomatoes, cantaloupe and squash were added to what is now known as the “Abundance Garden” — so named, Powell says, because it sounds better than the “behind the kitchen garden” as it was called for a while.
Allen says the larger 60 foot-by-200 foot garden off-site still grows foods like tomatoes, peppers, green beans, squash and corn to supplement the food pantry and purchased food served at Soul Food. Meals are free to eat in and $3 to carry out.
Recently the Soul Food Garden added a pilot food co-op model, with several families committed to working the gardens in exchange for a portion of the harvest. Powell says part of the goal of Soul Food is to promote healthier eating and to empower people with gardening skills so they can grow vegetables on their own.
Dalton is the seat of Whitfield County, home to more than 103,000 residents. Its poverty rate is 19.4 percent, higher than the state average. Much of the county is designated a “food desert,” a term used to describe communities — usually located in impoverished areas — with limited availability of fresh fruit, vegetables and other healthful whole foods.
According to the U.S. government, 23.5 million Americans, including 6.5 million children, live in low-income areas located at least a mile from a grocery store. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that about 2.3 million of them do not own a car.
Studies show that wealthy districts have three times as many supermarkets as poor ones do. White neighborhoods contain an average of four times as many supermarkets as those that are predominantly black.
Low-income communities are often filled with fast-food outlets and quick-shop conveni-ence stores offering processed, sugar-laden and high-fat foods known to contribute to obesity.
First Lady Michelle Obama included eliminating food deserts as a goal in her “Let’s Move” campaign to fight childhood obesity launched in February 2010.
Powell says he views the Abundance Garden as a model that could be easily replicated by other congregations. “It would be very easy if they had a small patch of land to do this.” Volunteers installed the garden at First Baptist in three hours one day.
The success has prompted a fresh look at a vacant piece of property the church owns across the street from the main campus. Though still in the dream phase, Allen says her vision includes a labyrinth, raised beds and a pavilion. “Our prayer is that it might be a kind of public sacred space where all might find rest and nourishment.”
Soul Food started out when a church member heard a presentation at a Georgia Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meeting about the “working poor,” and began thinking about feeding minis-tries for the homeless and wondering if anything similar was being done for those who have jobs but still cannot make ends meet.
She didn’t mention it for a while, because the church was in the middle of a building
program, but when she did volunteers embraced the idea. Thirty-five guests attended the first Soul Food on March 18, 2008. From there the program grew rapidly, mostly by word of mouth. The idea for the garden came in a sermon by the church’s former pastor, Bill Wilson, and volunteers stepped forward for that as well.
Powell says over the years Soul Food has opened doors for First Baptist to new parts of the community. While there is no formal program at the dinner, a children’s choir and tutoring during the school year have spun off as new ministry opportunities.
Members of the church have “been very supportive” of his vision of food services as a ministry, says Powell.
Another benefit? They’ve also enjoyed the freshly picked lettuce in their salads on Wednesday nights.
ABPnews/Herald’s reporting on innovative congregational ministries is part of the Pacesetter Initiative funded in part by the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation.
This article originally appeared in Herald, distributed five times a year to our contributors to the Annual Fund. Bulk copies are also sent to our Church Champions churches.