For over forty years Sunnyside Ministry’s food pantry has been living Matthew 25:35. “For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat.” The pantry is a source of food security for many in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Winston-Salem, NC. It’s open five days a week and often provides food to as many as 50 families a day.
A $26,500 grant from the Moravian Hunger & Thirst Field of Interest Fund in 2022 enabled Sunnyside to make additional purchases. The grant purchased frozen meat and food inventory items such as cereal and milk. Sunnyside also used grant money to purchase boxes to package food.
Mary Beth Marquard, Development Manager, said, “We didn’t anticipate the reduction in the amount of food we could obtain through Second Harvest Food Bank. In October 2020, for example, Sunnyside received and/or purchased 25,000 pounds of food from Second Harvest. In October this year, the most we were able to get was 2,500 pounds. This means we must shop at places like Costco, Aldi, and other grocery stores for the food we need to stabilize our inventory.”
“The grant received from MMFA allowed us to purchase the items we needed to continue to provide food to our hungry neighbors without having to reduce the size of the grocery orders. As of mid-October, Sunnyside has assisted 4,652 households with groceries valuing approximately $460,367.76.”
We thank you for your generous gifts to the Hunger & Thirst Fund which made this grant to Sunnyside possible. To learn more about all of MMFA’s field of interest funds, visit Grant Central Station.
