When one young woman walked into Palo Pinto County’s newest food pantry Thursday afternoon, she was met by two mothers giving away bags of fresh fruit, frozen meat, vegetables, milk and eggs.

After a short interview, Keisha Trammell and Ann Gourley prayed with the woman for her sick child, her husband worried about the possibility of a layoff and her other children at home. They then placed six bags of food and a gallon of milk in the back of her pickup before hugging the woman and her mother goodbye.

Though the two women have been wanting to help the community for a while now, the women opened the doors of Bread of Life Nov. 2 at their church’s fellowship hall.

Since then, they have served around 20 households and served lunch to several homeless people.

Their mission is to serve who ever needs food in the area and provide as many fresh and healthy foods as possible.

When someone walks into the small building at Leaning Tree Church off of Old Millsap Highway south of Mineral Wells, they sit down with Gourley and Trammell and talk about their situation and take prayer requests.

“If you need anything else, give us a holler,” Trammell told one man Thursday afternoon as they walked him to his car.

“We want to get to know people, not just give them food,” Gourley said.

They feed “whoever comes in and is hungry,” Gourley said.

They’ve seen people who live on a small Social Security check and people who earn a decent income but are going through a rough patch, Gourley said.

“One of our big deals is … fresh fruit for the kids,” Trammell said, pointing to a bag of apples. She said they want to give families a chance to provide their children a piece of fruit when they get home from school and a good dinner each evening.

Milk, eggs, chicken, apples and other fresh foods, as well as canned good and other non-perishables, went into the bags Gourley and Trammell have been handing out the last two weeks.

Gourley and Trammell said they’ve heard what they are handing out is different from other food pantries in town that focus more on non-perishables such as beans, rice and canned goods.

Thursday the first hot lunch was held at the facility.

After receiving a donation of hot dogs, Gourley and Trammell were put in touch with several homeless individuals in Mineral Wells.

“We felt like we needed to help … they aren’t getting lunch or anything,” Gourley said. Though Dunbar Neighborhood Council often provides dinner with donated chicken to the homeless, they want to help periodically with day-time meals for the homeless and others who may be hungry.

With their pastor driving a van, they picked up the men Thursday morning and soon were on the way to pick another acquaintance or two who could use a meal, the women said.

They then fed their six guests as many chili cheese dogs and chips as they wanted and talked over lunch with them.

“They were so grateful to be fed today,” Gourley said.

They were able to help two men with groceries, as well, the women said.

“It’s been a huge blessing, just to be able to love on people,” Trammell said.

Trammell, a rancher’s wife and stay-at-home mother of two children, said she had been wanting to help feed the community for some time.

“Well over a year ago, I felt like the Lord put it in my heart … but I didn’t know what it would be, a food pantry, a soup kitchen,” Trammell said.

Trammell said she volunteered in the past at the Cocoon Pregnancy Resource Center for about a year but had never done anything like Bread of Life.

Her parents, who attend Leaning Tree Church, put her in touch with Gourley, a congregation member, thinking they were like-minded, Trammell said.

They talked on the phone and began planning in September.

Though they receive no financial support from the church, they were given space in the fellowship hall to place the refrigerators and store food and the congregation has donated food and money, Gourley said.

Several other churches helped with food drives and they received a monetary donation from one business in town to help start off the project.

“We still feel like we’re putting it together,” Trammell said.

“We are setting up an account with the Tarrant Area Food Bank … hopefully we’ll be able to go much further with our money,” Gourley said.

Though they are open Monday and Thursday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and have held one hot lunch, they hope to be able to continue growing and reaching more of the community.

The new building the church is slowly erecting as funds come in will likely provide an office for Bread of Life as well as Cocoon Pregnancy Resource Center, the women said.

A community roundtable to discuss how to tackle hunger in the Mineral Wells community is also planned for December, according to the women.

For now, they could use donations and volunteers, Trammell and Gourley said.



New Haven in need

As New Haven Helping Hands food bank supplies continue to dwindle after a rough summer and year, director Jim Rhodes said Thursday they’ve had to begin buying canned goods such as green beans from a wholesaler at 40 cents a can.

With their money buying far less because area food bank suppliers are out of many of the items needed, public donations down and the need increasing, the bags of groceries handed out each month are smaller, Rhodes said.

Though Peco-Facet and several churches are currently conducting a food drive for the pantry, Rhodes said they’ve received few donations in their food barrels outside their building and have had to turn to buying food at more expensive prices to fill the empty spaces in the warehouse.

They’ve been seeing about 20 to 30 new families each week, according to Rhodes.

About a month ago, Rhodes told the Index the food shortage was the worst he’d seen during his many years with the food bank.

“We’re still hurting awfully bad but we’ll get through it somehow,” Rhodes said.



FUMC food drive

Citizens can drop off non-perishable food at VF Factory Outlet, First Financial Bank, VFW, Kelly & Co., Holiday Hill’s Country Club, St. Mark Lutheran Church, United Country/Cason Real Estate, Freeze Carpets. For more info call Tammy Lovell at 325-2269, 325-3069 or FUMC at 325-4707.