‘More like Jesus’

Looking around the community a few years ago, the congregation at Hoover Church of Christ noticed a couple of needs, preaching minister Chuck Webster said. It saw a need for the church to be more present in the community and a need to help those who were looking for help.

That’s what led to the idea of opening a food pantry in 2012.

“Sometimes churches become insulated and inward-focused, and that is obviously not how Jesus was,” Webster said. “And sometimes churches are known mostly for what they are against and not what they are for, and we also think that is misguided.”

Shortly after the spark of the idea, the church began making plans to open up the food pantry and extend its hands.

“We as a church decided to be intentional about being a blessing to our community — to identify and respond to specific needs in people’s lives,” he said.

The church’s plan, which has been successful, was to create bags of food to give to people in the community, Webster said. The bags, which contain non-perishable items designed to help recipients have a well-balanced diet for several days, can be picked up by anyone at the church on the last Sunday of each month, between 3 and 4:30 p.m.

“We have a group of volunteers who assemble the bags and others who come to help our visitors carry them,” Webster said. These bags serve anywhere from 25 to 30 families each month, he said.

“Though we don’t often talk about people’s needs for food and clothing in suburban areas like Hoover, we realized that many people within a short distance of our church building struggle to provide for themselves and their families,” he said. 

But that provision didn’t stop at the food pantry. It was also brought to the church’s attention that people around them didn’t have adequate clothing for the colder temperatures, children included. Thus the annual clothing drive was created. 

Now, each year as the holidays approach and the temperature drops, the food pantry and the clothing drive join forces to provide families with holiday meals and clothing to ensure they are prepared for the season. Frozen turkey and ham are paired with coats, hats and shoes. 

Whatever the people are in need of, Hoover Church of Christ does its best to provide it. Items such as pants, dresses, shirts, hats, ties and belts are all available for men, women and children. And all clothes they provide are clean and kept neat.

The event this year was held on Sunday, Oct. 28, from 2:30-4:30 p.m. with the help of dozens of volunteers from the church and helped around 100 families.

“God has been good to us, and we’re thankful that he’s given us these opportunities to bless the people around us in these small ways,” Webster said.

To learn more about or to contact the church, visit hooverchurchofchrist.org.