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EDEN - Leaning on his cane, Andrew "Gyp" Collins walked through the fellowship hall at Hampton Heights Baptist Church late Wednesday morning, pointing out the food intended to help the hungry.

There are boxes of canned goods, freezers of chicken breasts, and grocery bags of cereal, cookies and children's toothbrushes.

The 81-year-old former magistrate is proud of what he and a group of volunteers have been able to provide to needy families through The Lord's Pantry.

"This thing is a miracle, absolute miracle," Collins said.

Underneath that pride now lies worry. He recently learned that The Lord's Pantry may have to find another location.

Hampton Heights Baptist Church has allowed Collins and the volunteers to use the fellowship hall for free, but The Lord's Pantry is incorporated and is not a ministry of the church.

D.M. Dalton, pastor of Hampton Heights, and deacon board chairman J.R. Ferris said insurance liability issues have recently arisen around Collins' use of the fellowship hall.

As a pastor and Eden native, Dalton recognizes the need for such a ministry in today's tough economic times. He said there are people who are helped by the pantry today who would not have sought help 15 years ago.

But he likened using the fellowship hall for that purpose as attempting to "feed the hungry out of the trunk of your car."

"Hampton Heights Baptist Church has not abandoned the food ministry," Dalton said. "We do see the need. At the present time, the demand for this is exceeding facilities in which it's currently being housed."

Starting The Lord's Pantry was God's directive, said Collins, a retired magistrate. Collins said he knew nothing about mission work but "grew into it."

The first couple of years, he fed about 200 weekly; now 450 to 500 people visit the pantry. Sometimes that number climbs to as many as 600.

The Lord's Pantry is a member agency of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina and receives donations from local Food Lion stores.

The food is distributed on Mondays, and volunteers spend the rest of the week gathering, bagging and storing food in the fellowship hall.

On Wednesday, breads and desserts such as blueberry muffins, cupcakes and apple crumb pie lined the tables in the fellowship hall.

Clients get to pick the items they want.

"They get to make a choice just like you would in the store," Collins said.

The ministry is also very special to its volunteers. Friends have been made there, said Harriet Washburn, who volunteers with her husband, Kenneth "Foot" Washburn.

"We look forward to it every week," she said.

All of them can recount horror stories - families who visit the pantry looking for food to feed five or six children. Or the woman who visited recently and said she hadn't eaten in two days.

"You'd be surprised the people that come here that really don't have anything," said Bishop Steve Perkins of Evangelical Saints Church.

There is no ill will between Hampton Heights and Collins.

Collins is a charter member of the church, and he has nothing but praise for what its members have done for The Lord's Pantry over the past five years.

Church leaders plan to work with Collins and his board to explore possible solutions. Regardless of what happens, Dalton said, the pantry won't be asked to vacate the church property immediately.

Collins said he has started looking for other buildings .

Before she left Wednesday, volunteer Ruby Hampton told Collins she would be back today. She told him not to worry - everything would be all right.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 627-4881, Ext. 126, or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com