Florida church delivers Christmas meals

Low-income families, including residents of Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, still impacted by job losses following the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010, received approximately 14,000 pounds of food last Wednesday from fellow believers of good will.

Operation People for Peace chairman Art Rocker explained that the effort originated when a life group class from Hillcrest Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla contacted him.

“We started with this project about a month ago,” Rocker said. “[Hillcrest Baptist Church members] asked me, ‘What can we do to help people still displaced by the oil spill?’ I called here to Louisiana and somebody told me, ‘Bring about 50 bags of food. Red beans, turkey, rice and something like that.’ So, we went to working on 50 bags. Then it became 100 bags. The next thing we knew we were able to put together somewhere around 1,100 bags of food.”

Organizers made contact with five churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama where they delivered approximately 200 bags of food to each location.

Recipients of the donated goods include members of New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church in Houma and Moses Baptist Church in Thibodaux.

“It was really great,” Moses Baptists Church spokesperson Gail Meyers said. “Everyone got a bag so we were able to help 200 people in the community. It went very well. They got beans, rice, fruit, smokes sausage and a box of macaroni and cheese. It was very giving.”

An additional Louisiana delivery was made to the Kenner Baptist Church in Metairie. Other congregations that benefited from the contributions were the Tabernacle of Faith in Gulfport, Miss., and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Mobile, Ala.

“It has been some activity,” Rocker said. “These people really need help. Most of them are janitors or part-time workers that have lost income. That is what their families need and it has totally dried up this entire area. We wanted to lighten the load by providing some food for them.”