Cars filled the James E. Ward Ag Center last Saturday as a part of an ongoing effort to help provide meals for Wilson County families.
Lebanon First United Methodist Church held its quarterly food giveaway, which provided a week’s worth of groceries for 400 families.
Lebanon First United pastor Ryan Bennett said the group set the date for the giveaway in January.
“After the March 3 tornados, we decided we were going to beef this up to 1,000 families because the need was so great,” said Bennett, who said the giveaway was to be held in conjunction with Cumberland University football’s spring game.
“Then, this coronavirus thing happened, and we were worried we weren’t going to be able to have it,” he said.
The group held meetings with Lebanon Mayor Bernie Ash about a safe way to have the event.
“We’re limited to 20 volunteers through eight food stations — two people per station and four people running our traffic flow. The police have been amazing. They’re out here helping us. The goal is to get as much food out as we can while staying safe,” Bennett said.
Volunteers loaded the groceries into the vehicles as drivers stopped at each station to station in a drive-thru format.
Lebanon City Councilor Camille Burdine volunteered to load groceries for the giveaway with her son, Walker.
“I think our community has been amazing through the tornado and now this crisis. One thing we’ve always tried to do is to help our people,” she said. “I think there are all sorts of needs, but this is one way we can help with a certain need.”
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