Some come from Knoxville. Some from Grainger or Claiborne County. But others drive to Maynardville from as far away as Sevierville for the 30-35 pounds of food that they can receive from the New Fellowship Full Gospel Church. This Food Pantry is open on the 3rd Saturday of the month from 9:00 to 1:00, but people often start lining up as early as 7:30 in the morning. Clients do not even have to get out of their cars. Food is brought out and loaded for them.

When Maudie and her husband, Pastor Sam Ward, came to pastor New Fellowship
Church 3 years ago, the food pantry that you see today was not yet in existence. Back
then, the church would typically serve the community on a much smaller scale, usually a
few families per month. Though the church members recognized the ever-growing need
of the community and wanted to help as many people as possible, the church simply did
not have enough space nor enough manpower to run a food pantry of a larger caliber.
After months of praying, God sent people to the church to renovate an old storage room
towards the back of the building. That room now serves as the primary space for all of the food items that come in. It started small with only 20 or 30 boxes to hand out, but now they are serving about 100 families, or around 250 people, every month because with God all things are possible. A high percentage of their clientele are older folks trying to live on a limited fixed income. The goal of the New Fellowship Food Pantry is to do their best to be sure that nobody goes without food. Volunteers have even taken food to a few folks who could not come to pick it up.

New Fellowship Full Gospel Church has a congregation of about 50 people, yet around 15 of them come together, often bringing their children and grandchildren, to distribute food on the 3rd Saturday. Often members of other congregations will join them to help. On the 3rd Friday, the night before distribution, volunteers box up the non-perishables. Then on Saturday morning, members of the New Fellowship work the stocking table, adding perishables to the boxes. These empty boxes are often donated every month by Cooper Container but the donated boxes are actually twice the size that the volunteers need. Rather than waste the cardboard, Vickie Nichols and her husband, Phil Nichols, cut the boxes down and tape them up so that they are exactly the right size for distribution! It takes a village.

As with other food pantries, New Fellowship gets food from two main sources: Second Harvest Food Bank in Maryville, and Midwest Food Bank in Morristown. Second Harvest has two categories of food. People who receive USDA food must meet USDA income guidelines. But Second Harvest also has bulk food that does not have these guidelines. New Fellowship does not have USDA certification, so they do not (at this time) get any USDA food. There are no income guidelines for any of their food. A good deal of the food that comes from Second Harvest is free to food pantries. And the price of the food that they need to purchase is significantly less than the local grocery stores. For example, the pantry purchased 15 dozen eggs for $20! That’s $1.34 per dozen! Donations from the community purchased the food from Second Harvest and these donations go a long way. Between the two Food Banks, the pantry can receive frozen chicken, pork roasts, hamburger, oatmeal, cereal, chips, potatoes, fresh vegetables, canned goods and sometimes toilet paper and paper towels. The supply differs from month-to-month. Additionally, several volunteers often crochet hats, gloves and other items to be given out to anyone who needs them.

The New Fellowship Full Gospel Church is located across from Paulette Elementary School on 120 Pine Drive. Everyone is welcome to the Food Pantry on the 3rd Saturday of the month from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. In the event of a food emergency, please call Pastor Sam Ward at 865-255-9435.

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