Feeding the hungry is a collaborative effort

Pandemic, food supply, hungry kids and transportation are just a couple of the issues involved when a USDA grant for free and reduced summer breakfasts and lunches for WISD kids and others would end at the end of June.

The meals having been provided by the school district with a few pick up points during lunchtime and in the later afternoon were picked up at the First Baptist Church. The June 30 deadline worried Assistant Pastor Scott Tidwell, just the thought of hunger in the valley made him uneasy. The FBC facilities were handy with large cooking and storage available for large amounts of food, just in case of disaster.

He talked to the Pastor and got the okay. ”We’re going to feed them.” Getting the okay was the first step. The logistics were next. They had to be worked out, but everywhere he turned he not only got yeses, but he also got help.

“First I called Chef Jay. How many people can I feed per day? Two thousand a day, in a week that’s ten thousand. I knew the kitchen equipment would work and Ben E. Keith (the food distributor) was being very helpful,” Tidwell said. The plan would work. Especially with Mercy Chef’s know how.

“Scott’s job is to run around and find people in need, it’s the coolest thing ever,” said Chef Jay Bachman of the Mercy Chefs and the Wimberley Café. “This is a good thing and let’s do this.”

The logistics started falling in place. “It is the most ready kitchen to handle meals. It made sense to work out of that,” Bachman said. “Mercy Chef’s brought in the equipment and plugged into the Baptist kitchen.” With the additional serving equipment by Mercy Chefs the kitchen’s daily output was increased tenfold.

Through the Ministerial Alliance, the town’s churches joined up, as did Traci Maxwell of the WISD School Board.

Then the non-profits: the Fig Tree, Barnabas Connection, and the Crisis Bread Basket. Volunteer drivers, in addition to the usual location pick up points, will now deliver meals to ten drop off locations around the valley. Helping each other out when there is a need is a tradition in Wimberley.

Starting July 1, the meals will be cooked at the First Baptist Church, Monday through Friday. “On Fridays we have a backpack for weekend meals,” Tidwell said. His prophetic words of “We’re going to feed them,” came true.

“Crisis Bread Basket is very pleased and honored to be a part of this collaborated effort with other key non-profit organizations in our community. Providing meals to children in the summer aligns well with our overall mission in helping those in need,” John Urban, CBB Chairman.

“It was God’s church in the community… It’s great collaborative efforts,’ Tidwell said.

For more information contact Scott Tidwell at (512)847-9035 or (432)634-2364

First Baptist Church is located at 15951 Winters Mill Parkway.