(l-r): Mary and Joanne wait in line at a Mobile Market food distribution provided by Unity Outreach Church in Gloverville, S.C. Since Mary’s recent surgery, medical costs have made it difficult to keep food on the table. The two attend the Mobile Market event every two weeks.
Joanne and her mother, Mary, breathe the cool air drifting in through their car windows as they wait in line at the Unity Outreach Church Mobile Market distribution in Gloverville, S.C.
“The food has been helping us a great deal,” Joanne says. “My mother has been in the hospital and just had to have a pacemaker put in, so she’s had a hard time. The expense of that is really high, and the medicine that she has to buy is high cost too.”
Joanne stopped working so she could be Mary’s full-time caregiver. The two live together and Joanne does the cooking. Mary has been on a special diet since the surgery, so getting good food is extra important.
“We’ve been very thankful coming here and getting what we could get,” Joanne says.
As their car moves through the line, volunteers load food provided by Golden Harvest Food Bank into the trunk. Each family receives a large box filled with shelf stable food, frozen meat, and milk plus a flat of bottled water and a bag of potatoes.
Rev. Eder Herrera, Pastor of Unity Outreach Church and director of the church’s food assistance ministry, says the bi-weekly Mobile Market event provides food to between 700 and 900 people. The distribution starts at 11 a.m., and cars begin to arrive at 7 a.m.
“Since the pandemic hit, we see in this area about 10% unemployment, and we see kids suffering – so we decided we want to give out as much food as Golden Harvest Food Bank can provide us with,” Rev. Herrera says.
A native of Panama, Herrera shares why he and his congregation serve the community in this way: “I come from a third world country, and I know what it is to go to bed hungry. The Lord has blessed us and this great nation with so much food, and there’s no reason why we can’t provide as much food as we can to children and seniors and families in the Gloverville and Aiken area.”
