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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\u2019s parking lot, where volunteers place the groceries in the cars. Statum said, \u201cIt\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge community endeavor. Folks from lots of different religious backgrounds, different churches, people who don\u2019t go to church, and people of different ethnicities work side-by-side. Everybody\u2019s got the same mission, to feed people. We\u2019ve established some really great relationships because we ask how we\u2019re alike, not how we\u2019re 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,\u201d Statum said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it\u2019s a ministry that benefits the volunteers as much as those receiving the groceries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt changes things. If you come one time to work and serve, you\u2019ll be hooked and want to come back. So giving or receiving, God gives good gifts, and He doesn\u2019t do anything half-heartedly,\u201d said Statum. For more information, follow Westside Nazarene Church on Facebook or visit westsidenazarene.org. –GN<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s payday, and you\u2019ve 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\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"yoast_head":"\n