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GIBSONVILLE — One Saturday a month, Roger Wilson picks up boxes of groceries from Christian Bible Fellowship — but not from the church’s food pantry.

The Whitsett man pays for the groceries in advance through the Angel Food Ministry. He saves money because he pays the wholesale price for the food.

“It cut my grocery bill considerably,” he said.

The church, which makes no money through the arrangement, wants more people to know about the ministry.

“It’s a great way for people to save money, and there’s no stigma,” said Cheryl Sandford, a church member who coordinates the ministry. There are no income requirements, and anyone can participate.

The minimum purchase of $30 and can feed a family of four for about one week or a single senior citizen for almost a month. The box contains fresh, frozen and packaged foods of “restaurant grade” quality. Some of the products are nationally recognized brands.

Linda Willet, who lives in Caswell County but frequently visits her mother in Greensboro, started using Angel Food after she lost her job and had to get a lower-paying one. But she stuck with the ministry after her salary rose again because of the savings.

Willet said an added benefit is she lost weight because she eats more healthful food than she would have chosen at the store.

“This is a balanced meal,” she said.

Christian Bible Fellowship is one of many churches across the country that participate in the ministry, run by a nonprofit, nondenominational organization that relies on volunteers.

The organization has a distribution plant in Atlanta from which frozen, fresh and packaged food is trucked to local distribution buildings. One morning a month volunteers from Christian Bible Fellowship pick up bulk items from Burlington and pack customers’ boxes just before pick-up time.

On Saturday, families from the church double-checked the contents of each box before carrying them out to customers’ cars.

“Milk and celery ... pasta and pasta sauce...beef, pork roast and one strip steak,” Sandford read, as Maria Peterson, 12, and Sarah Lunceford, 8, swiftly moved each food from one box to another.
The volunteers placed a Billy Graham tract and next month’s menu in each box.

Christian Bible Fellowship joined the food ministry five years ago as a way of reaching people in the community so that they knew the church loved them and was there for them, Sandford said.

The ministry allows the church “to meet a physical need for food so that we can also meet a spiritual need,” she said.

Some customers have become members of the church. Also, the church believes in living debt-free, so the ministry supports that way of life.

Contact Jamie Kennedy Jones at jamie.kennedy@news-record.com or 449-4610.