Horizon Baptist Fellowship, Summerville, Georgia
Horizon Baptist Fellowship, Summerville, works with Feed the Hungry in an ecumenical partnership to meet local food needs.
Horizon Baptist Fellowship knows that food insecurity is a very real problem in the Summerville community, and they participate in a variety of ministries to address this problem. One such ministry is Feed the Hungry, an ecumenical partnership to which Horizon, along with a number of other churches, contributes financially as well as with labor. This coupled with federal programs allows Horizon to serve hundreds of families a month with supplemental food. Time is made to meet with each individual family to offer a hopeful word, in compassion rather than in judgment, and most importantly, to simply hear their stories and let them know someone cares. Horizon also partners with local schools on a food for the weekend initiative.
The church collects kid-friendly, easy to prepare food items and delivers them to local schools to be distributed among students in need. Church members volunteer their time helping coordinate this ministry, as well as providing labor and helping to unload, pack and distribute additional food provided to the schools by the local food bank. This program provides hundreds of kids who depend largely on school meals for nutrition with access to food on non-school days.
The local high school football team enjoys a meal provided by HBF, Summerville.
One other effort Horizon has undertaken is that they discovered there was a need for meals for the high school athletic teams and the band on travel days. Through working with the coaches and teachers, the church has been able either to serve every team at the local high school a meal before a game or to provide them with a to-go bag of goodies for the road.
This variety of ministries has allowed for all ages and skill levels to be engaged in hands-on ministry meeting real needs. By assessing the needs of the community and through intentionality in partnerships, Horizon Fellowship has been able to meet the needs of many that they would be unable to meet on their own, and they have been able to develop a stronger relationship with their greater community. To God be the glory.