The Family Food Ministry Runs on Faith.

by | Jun 2022

IT’S PAYDAY, and you’ve written down your wages and itemized what has to come out. Water and electricity, rent or mortgage payment, car payment, gas, prescriptions, and groceries crowd out other needs. Already, more money is going out than coming in. Something has to go to the bottom of the list. For many families, it’s food. To maintain a roof over their heads, they eat less. And many will never mention their need or seek assistance.

But in Tullahoma and surrounding areas, fewer families are hungry thanks to the Family Food Ministry (FFM). With a desire to meet a basic need, FFM became a non-denominational ministry of Westside Nazarene Church, a 501(c)(3) Nazarene Compassionate Ministry.

“We started doing this because there were people we love in our lives that were hungry. When you have a garden and grow too many ears of corn, you have a lot of corn. What do you do? You share it with your neighbors. That’s like wheat we do, said FFM Director David Statum.

“We are privately funded through donations from people throughout the community. We receive no government funds and don’t distribute any government food. I like to say we’re God-funded. We’ve been able to do this with a very, very limited budget. It’s absolutely amazing to see God multiply things. His math is way better than ours,” he said.

Photographed by Brooke Snyder.

Fridays are the primary distribution day each week. Cars line up at the Highland Baptist Church parking lot on West Hickory Street. At noon, FFM directs groups of 15 vehicles at a time to Westside Nazarene’s parking lot, where volunteers place the groceries in the cars. Statum said, “It’s like going to a parade, but instead of throwing candy, we get to put food in their cars and make awesome, wonderful friends [while] doing it.”

The distribution has gotten bigger and bigger since it began three years ago. On a recent Friday, the group served an estimated 1500 families, an average of 2500 people. It takes 54 people to do the Friday distributions, and preparation begins early in the week. The Westside Nazarene congregation is not large,soitisaministrythatrunsonhope, faith,volunteers,anddonations.

“It’s a huge community endeavor. Folks from lots of different religious backgrounds, different churches, people who don’t go to church, and people of different ethnicities work side-by-side. Everybody’s got the same mission, to feed people. We’ve established some really great relationships because we ask how we’re alike, not how we’re different; what brings us together, not what separates us. We focus diligently on what we can do together to utilize our strengths to help the majority of the people,” Statum said.

And it’s a ministry that benefits the volunteers as much as those receiving the groceries.

“It changes things. If you come one time to work and serve, you’ll be hooked and want to come back. So giving or receiving, God gives good gifts, and He doesn’t do anything half-heartedly,” said Statum. For more information, follow Westside Nazarene Church on Facebook or visit westsidenazarene.org. –GN

More Good News

Creating Community Space for Stem

Creating Community Space for Stem

DR. GARY Flandro’s father drove him to an observatory to see the moon as a young boy. When he was six, his mother gave him the book “Wonders of the Heavens.” He read it from cover to cover. These...

read more
The Heart behind the Breasts

The Heart behind the Breasts

Having a baby is one of those things that you can prepare for all you want, but you truly won’t begin to know what you are doing until you simply start doing it. Yes, it is wise to consult...

read more
What Really Matters

What Really Matters

On July 29, around 5:40 p.m., West Middle School (WMS) teacher Belinda Stuart received a text from one of her fellow teachers. The text informed Stuart that the fire alarm was going off at West...

read more
The Sky’s the Limit

The Sky’s the Limit

IF THERE is anything former Tullahoma Wildcat football player Brandon Painter has shown and proven to be a worthwhile objective it is this: “keep moving forward.” Painter played middle linebacker on...

read more
It all begins with Chocolate

It all begins with Chocolate

A STEADY BREEZE graced across the lake and gently rocked the old tattered hammock hanging over the water's edge. The newly married couple swayed together hand in hand dreaming of all that the future...

read more
Cheerleaders are leaders

Cheerleaders are leaders

IN HER freshman year of high school, Macy Olive decided to try out for the cheerleading squad. Olive came from what she considers a “football family” and was in love with the game. She shared, “My...

read more
A Celebration of Scots

A Celebration of Scots

A PIPER STANDS atop a grassy mound moving his bagpipe to and fro, playing songs of his kinsman that have been passed down for centuries. The sights of weavers and craftsmen honing their ancestral...

read more
Juneteenth

Juneteenth

“FREEDOM” enters the chatroom, and immediately it’s all, barbecued meat and who’s got the biggest bang of a firework show. While Independence Day is our nation’s designated time to pause and...

read more
Lights, camera, and Remodel

Lights, camera, and Remodel

MAYBE IT’S the pollen, but something about springtime creates an itch within us all to get busy. Whether it’s a simple task like cleaning out a cluttered closet or a more elaborate one such as...

read more
Reuniting Wildlife

Reuniting Wildlife

Did you know not everything you read on the internet is true? (Gasp!) We were shocked too. With the world at our fingertips, it’s become more than habit to pick up a phone, navigate to a search...

read more
Juneteenth

Prayers from Sea

AT THE beginning of this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to “carry out a special military operation.” (1) In January, news channels all around the world flashed the same satellite...

read more