Montgomery Rescue Mission Serves Hundreds in Food Drive

Cars lined the streets of Downtown Montgomery as hundreds of families waited for meals. The line spanned from the offices of More than Tours (17 Mildred Street) all the way to the I-65. Those first to arrive had been there waiting for hours.

According to Chaplain Curtis Browder of Montgomery Rescue Mission they routinely see hundreds come for their weekly Food Drives. However what has increased is the frequency with which they hold food drives.

“Yes’ it has gone up a lot. This is the third drive we have had in 2 weeks”, Chaplain Curtis Browder said.

According to Chaplain Browder’s daughter Michelle Browder the COVID 19 pandemic is affecting almost everyone.

“In every area we are getting calls from households that are not used to poverty that are finding themselves stricken”, Michelle Browder says.

The mood at the food drive was surprisingly bright. Seemingly everyone had an infectious smile on their face and there was music blaring from car after car. Before the food distribution began all of the volunteers huddled together in a semi circle and “praised God for the opportunity to help their neighbors in their time of need.”

I spent several hours there as hundreds of cars filed through the parking lot. However, the line seemed only to grow. It was glaringly obvious the breadth of the need for food. I was unsure if there would be enough to feed them all.

Pastor Sherry Conner Jr. of Special forces for Jesus outreach ministries believed that no matter how big the need was, God would provide.

“If they run out of food in the supermarket or Kmart or Walmart I’m going to call the raven. You know who the raven is, it’s Montgomery Rescue Mission, it’s the raven,” Pastor Sherry Conner Jr. said.

The Raven Pastor Conner is referring to is from a passage in the Bible (1 Kings 17:4.) In that passage a raven was charged by God to provide the prophet Elijah food during a time when he had none.

They believe they have been led by God to provide food not just during this pandemic but as often as they can. If you ask the 500 families that were fed today they would all say they did just that.

Chaplain Browder stated that his doors are always open and that getting help is easy.

“if anyone needs food they can call the Montgomery area food bank and they will refer them to Chaplin Browder that’s me up here anytime day or night.”