Dianne Ballard and her dog Daisy May stopped by Ministry Village at Olive on Tuesday morning to pick up a boxed meal.
The Milton woman often visits the outreach ministry on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when they provide hot meals and bags of food for individuals and families, because she can use the extra help and the company.
“It’s a good outreach program to have for people in the community so that they can be encouraged and realize that they’re not all by themselves,” Ballard said, holding Daisy May’s leash while the friendly boxer-mix wagged her tail at others nearby. “The program brings people together in unity to let them know that they do not have to do this alone.”
This Tuesday morning was especially busy as the nonprofit prepared to receive an enormous donation, about 35,000 pounds of non-perishable food like peanut butter, pinto beans and dry milk. It was enough dry goods to fill an 18-wheeler semi-truck and that’s exactly what the donor did.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) trucked in all the donated food from their regional storehouses to help support Ministry Village of Olive’s (MVO) food pantry.
The gesture was in response to an article the Pensacola News Journal published about the program last summer describing how many people counted on the food pantry, but that high food costs and inflation were making it tough to meet the need.
“The whole reason we’re here is because of your article, so thanks for sharing the good,” said LDS Communications Director Allison Kingrey.
Florida State President Jake Smith represents the 10 LDS congregations in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
He said the church can provide homegrown produce and beef because it’s the biggest landowner in Florida and utilizes a network of church farms and church facilities in the Sunshine State and around the country to grow food and package it.
It’s then delivered to regional storehouses where it can be distributed to nonprofits like Ministry Village at Olive. Smith said they’ve also donated to other local organizations like Manna Food Pantries and Feeding the Gulf Coast.
Article inspires donation: Rising inflation, food costs hitting Escambia charity just as hard as its clients
“We look to partner with local charities and to support them and put our faith in action,” Smith said. “Once we find an organization, we have the resources and ability to continue to support them. We also can help them with some of the other projects that they have going, maybe some computers for their computer lab. They do a lot of really great things here. We’re really excited.”
In addition to the food pantry, Ministry Village provides food, clothes, toiletries and other services, like power bill assistance and addiction recovery programs, to help people who are struggling get back on their feet.
Administrators say the hefty donation will help them serve many more people.
The demand for groceries was so great last year Ministry Village staff say they were forced to cut back to one box of food for the same family or individual every six months. This truckload of food is estimated to provide boxes to about 875 families.
“It’s going to enable us to use money that is donated for different things,” said Kathleen Schuster with Ministry Village at Olive. “We have so many other needs like programs to keep the lights on, hygiene supplies, feeding the homeless. This is just going to allow us to do so much more.”
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A team effort was needed to unload the thousands of pounds of food and store it in the ministry’s climate-controlled units.
Waterfront Mission offered the use of their facility and smaller trucks to deliver the food to Ministry to Village. Once there, dozens of people volunteered to help stock the donations, including airmen with the 359th Air Force Detachment.
Ministry Village Executive Director Drayton Smith said while the organization is still dealing with high food costs and inflation, like many in the community, the donation will go a long way to ease the pressure of how much they can provide to those who need it.
“What we’re seeing here right now today is a perfect example of Matthew 25:40, ‘Where you’ve done for the least of these,’” Smith said. “If it wasn’t for the Pensacola News Journal this never would have happened.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donates to Ministry Village
