Jennifer Bartley
Adventist Community Service (ACS) leaders from 10 Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., area churches and Accurate Health Care Agency, partnered for a grocery giveaway on January 28, 2019, to employees who were affected by the partial government shutdown which lasted four weeks. Participating churches in the Florida Conference include Ambassador, Eliathah, Ft. Lauderdale, and Lauderhill; churches in the Southeastern Conference include Deerfield Beach, Ebenezer, Light House, Mt. Olivet, New Hope, and Unity.
The event was held at the Vincent Torres Memorial Parkin Lauderdale Lakes, Fla. Sandra Davey, vice mayor of Lauderdale Lakes, partnered with the church members to secure the park. The 10 a.m. start time and a wind chill of about 35 degrees did not prevent families from coming out with their bags and baskets to be filled with grocery items to include bread, pastry, canned goods, vegetables, frozen foods, meat, and dairy products.
During the event, many showed up who were not workers of the federal government, and they were given an equal amount of grocery items. Large numbers of TSA workers came for the distribution. Those who had to work sent their IDs to collect their gas and gift cards, which were only given to federal employees.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) workers arrived late due to returning to work that same day. They were able to pick up their gas and gift cards, though most of the grocery items were gone. Ft. Lauderdale Church food pantry delivered several baskets packed with various grocery items to the IRS office in Plantation, Fla., the following day.
In total, 200 families were served, and 54 gas cards and 12 gift cards were given. Local area pastors were on hand to witness the event — Dolphy Cross, Unity and Deerfield Beach; Jeffrey Thompson, Ft. Lauderdale; Anslem Paul, New Hope; and Donald Burden, Light House. All participating churches and pastors; Accurate Health Care Agency; volunteers; and Robert Moore, ACS director for Southeastern, were thanked for being instrumental in making this a memorable event.
Southeastern | June 2019
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