By Taylor Boyd
“Hunger doesn’t have boundaries. It doesn’t matter where you’re from; if you’re hungry, we’ve got food,” said Larry Martin, co-overseer of the Patrick Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church Food Ministry.
“Really, nobody in Patrick County or the surrounding area should be going hungry,” he added.
The ministry, which began in the late 2000s as a bread program, moved into its current building next to the church in 2011.
“When we moved out here, we started picking up and slowly adding to our food that we give away. What we have today is a thriving food ministry because we’ve been richly blessed. We do not distinguish from one county to the next or one state from the next,” said Teresa Martin, Larry’s wife and co-overseer of the food ministry.
The ministry distributes food on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 2:30–5 p.m. It receives donations from Feeding America Southwest Virginia, God’s Pit Crew, a Danville-based nonprofit, along with local businesses. It also partners with the Patrick County Food Bank.
The Martins said the number of people using the ministry has risen sharply in recent months. Teresa Martin said 2,278 people were served in October, up from 1,956 in September — “now that is the whole household, like mother, father, kids,” and 379 more than in August.
She attributes the increase to the temporary halting of SNAP benefits in October and higher grocery costs. “The average family of four really struggles between buying their groceries, their gas, and everything else they have to pay for. It’s really sad,” she said.
Visitors must provide their name, county of residence, and household size before selecting food from the ministry’s lines, which include produce, bread, desserts, meats, canned goods, drinks, and any other available items.
“They can choose whatever they want. It’s a free-will thing. We don’t try to push anything on them; they get what they like. When my table’s full and overflowing, they can have anything they want,” Teresa Martin said.
However, when there are limited supplies on the tables, the amount of food people can take is rationed. Teresa Martin said rationing has increased in the past month due to limited supplies.
“We try to manage what we have the best we can, and I think for the most part we do well with that,” she said.
Larry Martin said the ministry orders food from Feeding America, occasionally picking up thousands of pounds at no cost, though shortages do occur.
“I like to shop when it’s zero dollars. Sometimes I’ll go over there and pick up 4,000 pounds of food for nothing, just the trip to Salem,” he said.
However, he noted, it’s not always that way.
“A couple of weeks or so ago, our numbers really picked up because of the government shutdown and food stamps, and people getting their” Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) “cards scammed. We were seeing people that we don’t normally see at that time of the month,” he said.
In response to the increased need, the ministry placed an $800 order to meet demand. “We didn’t know what else to do because we were getting so low,” Larry Martin said. Teresa Martin added, “It’s really a lot of money that we don’t have.”
In the midst of that situation, Larry Martin said the ministry served visitors they’d never seen from Patrick and Henry counties, areas in North Carolina, and those in other areas were stopping by to get food.
In addition to providing food, the group also ministers to those in need.
“Sometimes people come in upset or crying, and we take them, talk to them, pray for them, and pray with them,” Teresa Martin said.
Larry Martin added, “We want to connect with anyone going through the pains of life, whether it be from sickness, the loss of employment, the loss of a loved one, or whatever. Our volunteers are ready to stop what they are doing and gather around, and have a word of prayer for any in need.”
Anyone interested in volunteering, regardless of church membership, can call the Martins at (276) 358-2057.
Several people who need community service hours have helped during distribution days.
“We got a young girl who helped us on Friday for a few hours. Something through the high school, I don’t know whether she had to have like 20 hours of community service for a class she’s doing,” Larry Martin said.
In addition to the “faces” of the food ministry who work distribution days, he said, there are also many unsung heroes who help behind the scenes with picking up, delivering, and unpacking the food.
Because of the still increased need, the ministry is also holding a food drive through Dec. 7 for monetary donations, nonperishable items, and paper products. Items can be left outside the church, or checks can be mailed to Patrick Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church Food Ministry, P.O. Box 55, 260 Spring Road.
