Volunteers help feed hungry, elderly here
Storehouse Ministries helps feed the area's hungry and homeless with church support
By JESSICA ALLEN
Date published: 2/19/2005
Storehouse Ministries answers call to come to the aid of 'the least of these'
John T. Johnson stood outside a warehouse across from the Fredericksburg Fairgrounds this week waiting for food.
The 74-year-old Spotsylvania County resident said he barely survives on his Social Security checks. So, when he learned from a friend there was a place that gives bags filled with bread, milk, meat and dessert for free, he had to go.
"After I pay my bills, there's nothing left," he said. "And I need all the help I can get."
He isn't alone.
Storehouse Ministries, a Christian organization off Routes 2 and 17, feeds about 2,000 people a month, many of whom are like Johnson--on a fixed income and struggling to pay bills.
Founder Ray MacAnanny, who created the organization three years ago, said everything they do is for Jesus Christ.
"We could go to church, but if we don't take care of the least of these, [Jesus] says, 'Depart from me, I don't know you,'" MacAnanny said. "We need to look for the least and supply."
Storehouse differs from food banks around the region in many ways.
It is completely volunteer-based--most workers are members of Spotsylvania Church of God, Promised Land Praise and Worship Center, Grace Church of Fredericksburg and Highway Assembly of God.
Storehouse Ministries doesn't sell food by the pound and there are no membership or maintenance fees. The organization has no paid employees and all expenses are paid out of his pocket, he said.
MacAnanny is no stranger to feeding the poor. In 1991, he and his church pastor, the Rev. John Gimenez, pastor of Rock Church in Virginia Beach, started "A Can Can Make A Difference," a nonprofit organization that collected food and distributed it to churches and agencies that feed the needy.
After MacAnanny moved to the Fredericksburg area, he joined the Rock Church Ministries congregation on Bridgewater Street.
When the church created a local branch of A Can Can Make A Difference in 1997, MacAnanny financially assisted the project, said the Rev. Mark Lipscomb, the church's senior pastor.
The local organization donated food to churches and other groups who in turned gave it to the needy. But the needs of the people weren't being met, he said.
Date published: 2/19/2005
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