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Pikeville church provides food bank despite small size
By Connie Davis Bushey
11/11/2009
Baptist and Reflector

PIKEVILLE — Lee Station Baptist Church here draws about 40 people to Sunday morning worship service. Each week those members distribute food from its food bank to about 8-10 families, even delivering it to their homes.

The residents here have been hit hard by the economic slow down, said Bill Wolfe, pastor of the church for seven years and a native of the area. Unemployment is very high, partly because three manufacturing plants have closed recently. Another closed last year. The area of Pikeville is located in Bledsoe County and is called Sequatchie Valley.

The church’s food bank was opened about four years ago but the number of people requesting help has increased dramatically this year, Wolfe reported. Previously the church would give food to about one family a week.

To provide the food bank  church members “have really rallied,” said Wolfe, and people from the community have helped the church in amazing ways as they have learned about the church’s ministry.

“The Lord is just doing great things at Lee Station,” said Wolfe.

He is especially proud of the church members, who help others despite their problems. Many members of Lee Station, noted Wolfe, are sick from cancer or other illnesses or dealing with family problems. Yet they continue to bring food to the food bank, give their offerings to the church, distribute food during the day or night, and spread the word in the community. Bill Wolfe also works at a bank and relies on church members to meet people at the church and make up boxes for them.

Regina Wolfe is a church member who helps with the food bank. Regina doesn’t work outside the home because several years ago she developed a bacterial infection that resulted in the loss of her leg. Wolfe, who is just 49 years old, was not supposed to live and, when she lived, not supposed to have kidney function, according to her doctors. She lived and has good kidney function because of God’s goodness, she said.

She can drive but usually lets her husband, Larry, drive her to the church. He is disabled too from heart problems and also helps with the food bank.

Larry said he was unemployed at one time and his church helped him with food then. “It could be any of us tomorrow,” he said.

Carol Van Winkle, another food bank worker, is suffering from cancer and trying to help her sister who also has cancer. However Van Winkle helps with the food bank.

Betty Lively, another food ministry volunteer, contributed a freezer and helps in other ways. She assists a neighbor who grows a garden by canning and freezing the vegetables he grows. Lively gives a lot of those vegetables to the food bank.

She said of her church, “They say big things come in small packages,” referring to the small size of the congregation.

Joyce Wolfe, wife of Bill Wolfe, agreed with her brother-in-law, Larry, that part of the reason they are glad to help others is that they realize how vulnerable they are. She explained that she sees needy people in her job at the Department of Human Services, Pikeville, where she is a secretary. As she helps people make appointments to apply for welfare or food stamps, they learn they must wait for the appointment and often tell her that they need food. She is glad she can tell them about her church’s food bank. 

Though there are other food banks in the area, Lee Station still wanted to provide the food ministry because “we’re here to love people,” said Joyce.

Church members buy food at a discount from the Chattanooga Area Food Bank. The church also receives donations. A truck driver recently learned about the ministry and gave the church a large gift of yogurt. Residents give fresh eggs, chickens, beef, blankets, and money. One unusual gift of funds was from a bike riding group who helped one group in each county they rode through.

When the church doesn’t have adequate food, it buys gift certificates at a local grocery store to give to needy families.

The people who are helped really need the help, agreed the church members. The only families they help regularly are a few elderly people. The church doesn’t screen people they help, but because Joyce refers many families who are asking for government help, that is a way to screen them.

On helping all who ask for help, Regina Wolfe said, “If they’re using a church they’ll answer for it later on but we’ll be doing what’s right. ”

Bill Wolfe said none have become Christians through the ministry that he knows of but one lady has begun attending Lee Station because of the ministry and many people have learned about God’s love through it.

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