LUTZ, Fla. — The need for help and support is growing and so are the voices saying, “I can help.”
Michelle from Carrollwood reached out on Nextdoor sharing what Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz did to help school children and families who need supplies and food.
“I didn’t have much…but took what I could spare,” she wrote.
On Sunday, Pastor Ken Whitten put out the call: “We’ve been getting phone calls every single day. We’ve been feeding people every single day. This is your way of giving,” he said in his virtual sermon.
From 2-4 p.m., Idlewild Baptist Church hosted a drive-thru donation drop off.
“Don’t get out of your car,” he said. “We’re not gonna ask you to get out of your car, you’re just gonna drop off and you’re gonna take off.”
Before 1:30 p.m. the cars were lined up. People were ready to donate what they could. The pictures showed an unexpected amount of giving.
“Wow! Did that just happen? Is this the result? It was just non-stop action,” said Yerusha Banug.
Banug oversees local mission outreach for the church, a role that has grown exponentially in the past week as Idlewild’s typical global outreach programs have had to pause because of travel restrictions.
“When hit we realized now it’s no longer just the inner city and no longer just the school, it would be our own thousands of members of (the) congregation that might be affected,” Whitten said.
Banug said they started to hear increasing need from partners in Hillsborough County schools and from groups like Lakeland’s One More Child. The church was also hearing from seniors who needed help and families impacted by job loss.
“We were hearing the needs, but we were getting hundreds of forms of people: I want to help, I want to get involved,” she said.
Banug and volunteers found a way coordinating “social distancing collections” they say was blessed by county officials.
“Our county officials and our mayor has given us permission and here’s what they’ve said, ‘By law, if you are a distribution center and you’re helping people with food, you can get out to do that,” Whitten said.
Whitten and Banug pointed out workers wore gloves, masks and followed social distancing guidelines.
The overarching message was for families to give hope and maybe find a little during a not-so-average Sunday afternoon drive.
“They were just glad to be here a drive-by get that little taste of this is my church and go back home with hearts filled. We just don’t want to give you food we want to give you hope,” Banug said.
The donations will help several hundred families in Tampa Bay. They’re working with Hillsborough schools to identify those who need one of the donated tablets and computers.
As for whether this will be a regular occurrence, they say right now they’re going day by day.
This story was inspired by a local resident who reached out to Courtney Robinson on Nextdoor. Click here to see and comment on Courtney’s Nextdoor posts.
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