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By NATHAN HOWELL | Special to the Reporter

PELHAM – Seeking to nourish people both physically and spiritually, the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd in Pelham held a drive-thru food drive and prayer on Saturday, July 25, to help satisfy the needs of their community.

According to Vicar Andrew Brashier the drive was a success despite the challenges caused by COVID-19 and inclement weather.

“We got a large number of food donations,” Brashier said. “A little over a half dozen different people came by with shipping boxes filled with donations that we requested. Canned food items were the number one thing donated.”

All of the donations will be used to benefit Oak Mountain Missions, which helps provide food, clothing, furniture and financial assistance to those in need.

The collaboration between the community and the church was an incredible effort designed to benefit those most affected by food insecurity, and the lack of spiritual engagement caused by the pandemic.

“This is a huge thing,” Brashier said. “It’s tremendous to have so many people see our flyer and come by to help out and reach out to give stuff to their neighbors that they don’t even know. It speaks a lot to the fact that the people want to be able to minister in some way to others.”

Many of the visitors requested to be prayed over when donating their items, which Brashier described as an alternative to being hands on when it comes to spiritual engagement, and the mood at the event was evident of the benefit that this event provided.

“Everyone was very positive and really nice. The overall feeling was that it was a way to help people who were affected by the virus,” he said. “It is a nice way to do something for people. The idea everyone had was ‘at least I can help feed somebody who’s got these collateral damages caused by the virus.’”

The church is planning on doing more events like similar to this every quarter moving forward. Brashier said he expects the fall event to be even more successful since the weather will be much nicer.

This is not the only chance that the public has to help collect food for the mission, as the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd has an “endless food drive” where members and visitors to the church are encouraged to bring food items to their Sunday service.

Brashier added that anyone seeking spiritual nourishment at this time is invited to attend the church’s 9:00 a.m. Sunday service outside of the church.