Food Pantry Ministry

Mission Statement:
We demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ by providing the loving, compassionate distribution of food for the sustenance of those who are hungry in our community.

A brief history:

Advent’s Food Pantry has been serving the community continuously since 2010. Before that time, we were already giving out bread to 3-4 families per week. Since 2010 the number of pantry clients has grown, at first slowly and steadily and then with bumps due to the Covid pandemic and the current impact of inflation. All through this time of growth, support for the Pantry from the congregations of Advent (especially) and other Suntree area churches has been strong.

Our clients include the elderly living on small, fixed incomes, the mentally or physically disabled, the working poor, and some homeless people. We have fewer homeless patrons now than in the past because some appear to have moved on due to the clearing of nearby forested areas along Wickham.

In 2020, we started seeing many clients who were newly unemployed. Many of them had never in their lives had to ask for food, and they were deeply grateful. Now, with food prices and rents so high, more and more people come to us for food.

Recent Developments:

2023 is even busier than 2022. The cutback of pandemic era SNAP benefits in Florida coincided with a boost in client numbers during 2023; the pantry served an average of 58 families and distributed 38 bags of food each week.

Our Food Pantry Ministry collects food from surrounding churches and organizations and works with Second Harvest Food Bank. We have a weekly drive-thru food pantry that hands out bags of groceries to families in need.