DELIVERING MORE THAN GROCERIES: 'FRUIT OF THE VINE' MINISTRY REACHES OUT TO THOSE IN NEED

There are dozens of families in Cape Girardeau who wouldn't have enough food to eat each month if it weren't for the kindness of members from Vineyard Christian Church.

The church operates a food bank ministry that even offers delivery service each Saturday. It distributes nearly 5,000 pounds of food each month.

"We've never advertised because we are small," said the Rev. Robert Wright, pastor of the church, but word gets out quickly.

The 120 members of the church rotate their schedules so they deliver groceries only once a month although the service operates weekly. When they aren't delivering groceries, members stock and reorganize the pantry at the church.

The "Fruit of the Vine" ministry started around 1985 when the church met in the old Broadway Theater downtown. People who were poor and without food would come seeking help from them.

At the time, the church worked through the FISH food bank, but people can only receive aid there once every six months. Wright said the church saw too many of the same people coming each month, so it founded its own food bank as a supplement.

"There are a lot of myths about the poor in America," Wright said. Most of the people helped by the church would like to work and support themselves but often they just cannot.

Elderly people on very limited incomes, mentally handicapped and single mothers make up the majority of families served by the church. Of those groups, single mothers are about 40 percent of the deliveries.

"A lot of times these are mothers without skills and if they got work it would be minimum wage," Wright said. "And on the income they would make, they wouldn't be able to pay for child care."

Often these mothers don't even have enough to provide a home, so there are few options without public assistance, he said. That's why the food bank is so important.

"You might consider these acts of kindness, but it was just in our heart as a way of giving back and to show that the church is here to bless you," Wright explained.

When people call seeking help, the church is ready. It has set up a recorded hotline people can call to leave a name and address for delivery or can arrange to pick up the groceries.

After listening to the messages church member Laura Potts, who oversees the food pantry project, compiles the lists and makes boxes for each person on Friday nights.

People who can drive pick up the food Saturday morning or afternoon, although most come in the morning. Deliveries are then arranged for the other people who called.

Many of the items, which are primarily U.S. Department of Agriculture commodities, come through the Bootheel Food Bank in Sikeston. Staples like rice, flour, cornmeal, cereals and some canned goods are donated and sold at vastly reduced prices -- 14 cents a pound -- to the church.

"It's a second harvest of foods," Wright said, and many people reap the benefits.

The Salvation Army offers its Meals with Friends program during the last week of each month, and St. Vincent de Paul Church holds a free meal on the last Saturday of the month for people in need.

Now St. Vincent's even helps with the grocery deliveries, Wright said.

None of the community work the church does is a means of seeking money, Wright said.

"We've tried to give back to the community and it's taken a lot of forms," he said.

Church members have handed out free sodas to motorists at busy intersections during the summer months.

"We don't want money we just want them to know that God loves them in a practical way," Wright said.