PHOTOS PROVIDED BY ST. ALBAN’S EPISCOPAL, AUBURNDALE
Father John Gullett, rector of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Auburndale, left, poses with his Pantry Shelf Outreach Ministry.

For more than 120 years, St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Auburndale has served Jesus in many ways. But its mission to feed the hungry may be this Polk County church’s greatest Godly contribution.

For 45 years, the church’s food pantry, named the Pantry Shelf, has served the East Polk community, according to Father John Gullett, rector of St. Alban’s. Open the first and third Fridays of each month from 9 to 11 a.m., the Pantry Shelf served a whopping 137,549 pounds of food to 3,979 families representing 13,538 individuals in 2017, according to a St. Alban’s news release.

“In 2017, the Pantry Shelf received $18,210 in restricted gifts,” Gullett said. “St. Alban’s also spent $10,613 from our own budget to support this ministry.”

The staggering numbers are necessary as the Lakeland-Winter Haven metropolitan area has a food hardship rate of 23.2 percent, the second-highest in the country behind Bakersfield, California, according to the Food, Research & Action Center’s National, State, and Local Index of Food Hardship Report released in June of 2016. Auburndale sits between Lakeland and Winter Haven.

Gullett said St. Alban’s is an FDA distribution center and purchases product from area food banks such as Feeding Tampa Bay. “We also receive product from food drives conducted by local businesses and communities,” he said.

St. Alban’s Pantry Shelf Outreach Ministry prepares donations.

Helping to compile, organize, store, and serve that food are 10 to 15 church members who form the Pantry Shelf Ministry. “The 10 to 15 church members are consistently volunteering, and they are supported by other volunteers from other churches and the community,” Gullett said.

Ministry members stay busy. Although there are new faces who come through the line every other Friday, most recipients are regulars. “They are our friends and neighbors,” Gullett said.

Outreach folks use established guidelines to keep the pantry flowing smoothly and available to many. Families of five or less receive a bag of dry goods and a bag of perishable goods including frozen meat and whatever fresh vegetables, fruit, bread and eggs the pantry has that week. Families of six or more receive an additional bag of dry and perishable product. A two-bag order is usually 30 to 35 pounds, while a three-bag order is approximately 45 pounds, Gullett said.

Such generosity and community service have benefits for parishioners, as well. “St. Alban’s vision statement is ‘Seeking the spiritual, social, and cultural good of our community in the name of Jesus,’” Gullett said. “In Matthew 25 Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

A long line of people wait to enter the St. Alban’s Episcopal Pantry Shelf.

“We believe that the Pantry Shelf ministry at St. Alban’s is one way to serve Jesus as we serve our friends and neighbors in need,” Gullett said. “Before we open the doors to the Pantry Shelf, all of the volunteers gather for prayer. Each time as I lead us in prayer, I pray thanking God for blessing us so immensely through the person and work of Jesus, and then I ask God to make us a blessing to our friends and neighbors. The needs in Polk County are legion, but food is certainly a huge need.”

The church is located at 202 Pontotoc Plaza, Auburndale. For more information, call 863-967-2130.