Texas Megachurch Donates More Than Six Tons of Food to Struggling Food Pantry
A Texas megachurch recently gave more than 12,500 pounds of food and personal care items to a community food bank that was in desperate need of donations.
Robby Gordon, community pastor for local outreach at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Carrollton, Texas, told The Christian Post the church collects food each quarter for one of five different area food banks. Gordon says it was a "privilege" and "blessing" for the church to be able to provide in such a big way this fall.
"Bent Tree wants to be a church that isn't just in the city, but for the city, and that's something that we've tried to instill in the people that make up Bent Tree. It's been incredible to sit back and watch how Christ, working in and through them, has made such a tremendous impact at [Frisco Family Services]," said Gordon.
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Frisco Family Services (FFS), a community organization that helps the homeless, hungry and others who have urgent needs, sent out a newsletter, which Gordon provided to CP, on Oct. 15 saying the shelves of its food pantry were "almost empty" and that it needed to collect 60,000 pounds of food in October. Bent Tree had already been collecting food for about a month at that time, which Gordon attributed in a statement to God's perfect timing.
Not only was Bent Tree's donation the largest FFS has received all year, according to Gordon, it was also the largest collected in the church's 38-year existence. The church's previous record was set in November 2012 when it brought in 10,000 pounds of food.
"I think the biggest thing is that we truly want to be a church that, if we were gone, our community would mourn," said Gordon.
FFS says the food donated by Bent Tree will provide 248 families of four with three square meals a day for an entire week, according to a press release.
"The drive will help our nonprofit 'get ahead of the demand' particularly during the holidays," said Melanie Perkins, development director at FFS, in a statement. "It almost leaves me speechless that someone is willing to give us that much food. It's very needed and we're just very honored that they chose to give it to us and to the Frisco community."
Bent Tree began in 1975 with just 15 families. Today the nondenominational church it is attended by more than 4,000 people.
