One in four area families is “food insecure” and does not know where their next meal will come from.
To meet the need, the Twin Rivers General Baptist Church and Rombauer General Baptist Church have partnered to host “The Table,” a free food distribution program on the last Saturday of each month.
“It kind of started in May of last year,” explained Adam Mathias, pastor Twin Rivers General Baptist Church. “A couple from our church had a burden to provide help for the people in our community.
“ … They just came to me; they have a heart to serve. … He and his wife originally were helping with the Bread Shed,” a free food distribution program in Poplar Bluff.
The couple, Mathias said, indicated “we should do it in our area because we have such poverty in our Twin Rivers area.”
Mathias said his church decided to do a “one time truck” from the SEMO Food Bank.
Assisting in the distribution, Mathias said, was Rombauer pastor, Scott Wilkerson, and his wife.
“Then, after that first time, the SEMO Food Bank contacted us and said a donation had been made; they offered us a free truck to do it again,” said Mathias, who indicated Wilkerson and his church wanted to partner with Twin Rivers to continue the ministry.
It was decided to “do this one time; we expected just one time,” Mathias explained. “Then, the free truck was offered,” and “we saw the need in the community, so we just kept going.”
The churches, Mathias explained, do not do the ministry for recognition, but just as a way to help.
“It’s all for God’s glory,” Mathias said. “It’s happening naturally.
“It’s nothing to do with me. The churches got together; the churches decided to do this.”
Every few months, Mathias said, the congregations are asked whether they want to continue the ministry, and each time, “they want to continue.”
Each church, Mathias said, has created a separate fund for the ministry, and 100% of donations go to support the program. The cost, he said, is roughly $850 for the “bigger truck” of food.
The food distribution is held each month at Twin Rivers General Baptist Church, 6300 Highway 51, at Fisk. The doors open at 7 a.m.
“Anyone who comes and says they need food, we give food to them,” Mathias explained. “ … We ask that they bring a box or basket” to carry the food.
Mathias said The Table asks for no information other than a name.
“We fix breakfast as well, biscuits and gravy,” Mathias said.
The ministry, according to Mathias, is a labor of love for the churches.
“It takes a lot of devotion from the people who work from both churches,” Mathias said. “It takes work and devotion every month to serve the community, share the gospel and feed people.
“It’s just a good time.”
Mathias said he and Wilkerson do very little with the distribution.
“We minister the entire time, singing songs and sharing the gospel,” Mathias said.
It is the church members who are there unloading the truck, as well helping the families and loading the food for them, Mathias said.
“The people from the two churches have been fantastic,” he said. “They get out there and help.
“Some are there the night before. Some are there at 5:15 (a.m.) cooking, and they’ve done it every month.”
Last month, the ministry served 249 families, up from a low at one time of 174 families, said Mathias, who indicated the average is about 200 families a month.
“As the word gets out, more people come,” Mathias said. “We’re a very rural area of Butler County,” but families also are coming from Stoddard and Dunklin counties, as well as northeast Arkansas.
“We ask every time, is there any newcomers; there are newcomers every time,” he said.
According to Mathias, those who have been helped have reported what a blessing the food has been to them and how they didn’t know what they would have done without it.
“Especially for being so rural, (the families are) a mix,” Mathias explained. “We have a lot of senior citizens (but) at the same time, it’s a lot (of families) with young kids.”
Mathias said the churches have a great working relationship with the schools.
“There are a lot of children in the area that suffer lack of food,” he said.
With The Table on the last Saturday and the Bread Shed on the second Saturday each month, “twice a month, they can get food a short distance from each other,” Mathias said.
The churches, he said, are “trying to spread the word to as many in need as possible.”
For more information about the ministry or to make a donation, check out The Table’s Facebook page.