Vegetables, bread, eggs and a ham.
Just before Easter 2023, residents of economically disadvantaged northeast San Antonio, Texas, received a bag of groceries containing these food items and more. The food arrived courtesy of up to 90 volunteers from nearby Madison Hills Baptist Church who not only bagged the groceries but also fanned out across the area to hand out the bags to community members.
“We wanted to go door-to-door to give them an Easter meal, no obligation, none whatsoever,” says Robert Bennett, senior pastor at Madison Hills, which has an average weekend attendance of 200 people. “So, we bought what we thought was amazing food.”
Bennett explained how the church, which spent about $6,000 on the groceries, decided it simply wanted to be a blessing in the lives of its neighbors.
An elderly woman who received the meal confided in Bennett later that she had been contemplating suicide when a church volunteer bearing the food knocked on her door. The visit from a caring stranger stopped the senior citizen, who can’t get out much and has no family, from taking her life.
Next Easter, the church plans to distribute a meal to the community once again.
Providing these groceries is just one way Madison Hills has served its neighbors through food. In October, the church hosted a community barbecue. The church recently “adopted” local elementary schools, delivering bags of cookies, words of encouragement and Scriptures to teachers in December.
Additionally, for more than six years, Madison Hills has contributed to a local high school’s food pantry, helping to combat food insecurity among homeless students. Bennett learned last fall that a group of students from this high school paid it forward and provided Thanksgiving meals to families in need.
“That was amazing,” he added. “I mean, these kids don’t go to church here. They just wanted to give back. That’s been wonderful.”
