Bent Tree Bible Fellowship, a nondenominational church in Carrollton, Texas, has collected and donated 12,561 pounds—or 6.2 tons—of food and personal care items to Frisco Family Services. The donation is the largest amount ever collected in the church’s 38-year history and goes toward relieving a great need for Frisco’s only food pantry.
Frisco Family Services put out an announcement on Oct. 9 stating its food pantry was nearly empty. The statement went on to say the food bank had an immediate need for several types of food and toiletry items, after seeing a 20 percent increase in the demand for this critical service.
“Our church had been collecting food for Frisco Family Services since September,” says Robby Gordon, Bent Tree’s community pastor for local outreach. “We didn’t know at the time that our food collection would be so timely for the Frisco Family Services food pantry, but God’s timing is perfect and was obviously at work in our collection.”
Every year Bent Tree hosts a food collection to be donated to a local nonprofit; this year the church made a goal to raise more food than ever and achieved that target. It was important for Bent Tree to donate this year’s collection to Frisco Family Services, as the church is actively seeking opportunities to reach those in that community.
“We want to meet people where they are, and right now, the need is in Frisco,” says Paul Miller, the church’s Frisco campus pastor. “There are 611 Bent Tree families that live within five miles of our group that meets in Frisco. That, accompanied by the fact that there are homeless, hungry, those with special needs and struggling families, proves to us that we need to be in the Frisco community.”
The 6.2 tons of food donated by Bent Tree will go straight to the shelves of the Frisco Family Services food pantry. Frisco Family Services says that 6.2 tons of food will feed three square meals a day for one week to 248 families of four.
“The drive will help our nonprofit get ahead of the demand, particularly during the holidays,” says Melanie Perkins, development director at Frisco Family Services. “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.”
With a campus in Carrollton, Texas, the ministry of Bent Tree is based on the Bible verse Galatians 2:20, which focuses on the indwelling of Christ, or Christ living within a person. The church began with 15 families in 1975 and now has expanded to more than 4,000 attendees.
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