LEXINGTON, Ky. — African American faith leaders are filling a gap while inspiring unity with a holiday food drive for families.
Erika Meadows is an administrative assistant at Lexington’s Consolidated Baptist Church, where a temporary pantry is coming together.
“Families who have been impacted by the lack of SNAP benefits that recently happened,” Meadows said. “When people say, ‘Hey, I need help,’ there’s always a surrounding of people here that will gather around you, get the specifics, and get you the help that you need.”
With turkeys, gift cards, and more, multiple African American churches are helping people avoid facing the holidays hungry.
The effort is part of the Black faith leaders of Lexington and Vicinity’s latest call to action; God’s Store is a community food giveaway.
“We put out a message just a week ago to say, ‘Hey, this is the need. We want to make sure that we are helping our community.’ Thanksgiving is coming, but we didn’t want to just focus on Thanksgiving,” said Growth Point Church pastor Mario Radford.
The Black Faith leaders of Lexington and Vicinity are a collective of leaders from different religious backgrounds in the city who address social, systemic and community-related challenges.
Radford, who’s been in ministry for 25 years, is part of the faith leader group and one organizer behind the event. He said this holiday-themed market is how they work together to show continued support outside of each of their churches’ walls.
“Whether that’s, challenging some legislation that was, pushed or passed or something that’s going on in the educational system, something that’s happened in the mayor’s office, whatever it is, we want to make sure that we’re not just the people that are praying or talking about it in our churches, but we’re saying, hey, we’re going to be at those meetings, and we’re going to make sure we show up,” Radford explained.
Multiple churches, leaders, volunteers and donations are helping toward the effort.
“I love to hear solos, but I also love to hear when a choir or a group of people come together; they’re able to make a larger sound and have more impact,” Radford said. “So when we come together as a church and not just promoting what our belief systems are, denominational, but our real belief is we’re called to help our community when we come together, it shows our community that we’re more alike than we are different.”
On Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., families can pick out what they need inside the Consolidated Baptist Church’s Andrew Center.
Donations are still being collected ahead of the event for families needing support. Growth Point Church’s Facebook page has more information.
