LUMBERTON — “The Lord is never late.”
Those were the words of Rosemarie Glenn, founder of My Refuge Ministries, which offers free meals, a food pantry, and clothing in Lumberton for the poor as she expressed gratiture on Tuesday as volunteers restocked the pantry’s shelves.
The help arrived one day after she gave away the last of the pantry’s cans of string beans and corn.
“We will be able to help members of our community more because now we have more food that we can give them,” Glenn said.
My Refuge is among pantries receiving help from Food Lion during its second annual “Great Pantry Makeover” that he held as part of Hunger Action Month.
Several employees from area Food Lion grocery stores were on hand to hang shelves and restock the pantry on Tuesday. Second Harvest Food Bank of Fayetteville nominated My Refuge to Food Lion.
Kristyn Callaway, media and community relations specialist with Food Lion, was among those lending a hand.
“Our overall company commitment is to donate 500 million meals by 2020,” Callaway said. “We actually selected more than 30 pantries to make over within 30 days.”
Food Lion is working with food pantries in the 10 states where it has stores.
“We work with them, figure out what their needs are,” Callaway said. “Here they needed new shelving and they needed specific types of products to feed their clients at My Refuge.”
Food Lion provided perishable items, such as chickens and turkeys, as well as non-perishables, such as canned vegetables, and macaroni and cheese, Callaway said.
In 2015, My Refuge served 30,378 plates of food. As of the end of August, it had served 17,836 during 2016, Glenn said.
The pantry’s Thanksgiving supper and food giveaway will be on Nov. 22, according to Glenn, who asks donors to start delivering canned and other packaged goods by Oct. 8 so they can be bagged. The Christmas supper and food giveaway will be on Dec. 24. She asks that donors start delivering canned and other packaged goods by Nov. 12.
My Refuge is open 4:30 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays for dinner; 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays for lunch; 4:30 to 6 p.m. Saturdays for supper; and 1:30 to 2 p.m. Sundays when bagged lunches are provided.
Food from the pantry is given out once every three weeks based on need and supply.
