St. Luke’s, Tarboro, Feeds the Community
By Summerlee Walter
St. Luke’s, Tarboro, is a small historically Black church in a small town. Consecrated on May 29, 1899, it was designated a living historic church in 2015. With an historic building comes historic building problems. The congregation applied for and received $62,000 in Phase I of the mission proceeds disbursement offering from the 2023 sale of the old Diocesan House. The funding went to repair the foundation, flooring and threshold in the parish hall, as well as the leaking roof of the church.
“[The roof repair] made a big difference because we don’t really have a full-time sexton, and going in and mopping before services, during or after was a bit much,” member Betsy Crews explained.
Despite the challenges of its buildings and a small, aging congregation, St. Luke’s meets a critical community need with its monthly food distribution. Beginning at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, St. Luke’s has distributed bags of groceries to anyone in the community who needs it from folding tables set up in front of the church on the third Saturday of each month. The congregation picked that date because it falls in the middle of the month, when the number of days remaining before the next benefit check might start to outstrip the grocery budget. The only question volunteers ask guests is how many people live in the household receiving food. Based on self-reported numbers, St. Luke’s feeds 130-140 people each month.
Calvary, the other Episcopal church in Tarboro, has been a partner since the ministry began, and Conetoe Family Life and Pine Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Pine Top also provide support. Family Life provides 50 boxes of fresh produce each month—St. Luke’s doesn’t have the capacity to store perishable goods—and Pine Chapel Missionary Baptist provides volunteers. Other members of the community also contribute funds and donations of food. The church recently received an additional $20,000 in Phase III mission proceeds funding to support its feeding ministry.
Each month, every guest receives a box of fresh produce and a supply of nonperishable goods, including rice, peas, corn, tomatoes, string beans, lima beans, mixed vegetables, cereal, peanut butter, jelly, canned meats and fish, toilet paper, paper towels and ramen. That last one Crews learned about from her students during her career as a teacher.
“I used to hear them talk about ramen noodles, ramen noodles,” Crews said. “When we were doing our backpacks [of food for the weekend], instead of me going out trying to fill those backpacks, I took our children and told them to help pick out what they would like to see in their backpacks. The first thing they grabbed was ramen noodles.
“I haven’t tasted a ramen noodle yet, but I have bought so many, sometimes I feel like a ramen noodle.”
Crews and her late husband used to do the monthly shopping for the food distribution, but now she handles it by herself. It is not unusual for her fellow shoppers to comment on the fullness of Crews’ cart. When they ask why she’s making so much soup—the canned vegetables suggest a big pot of it—she always shares that she’s buying groceries for her church to distribute. One time, after Crews explained her cart to a curious shopper, he returned 10 minutes later with a $20 bill. That happens on occasion.
Even the weather seems to support St. Luke’s food distribution. When the ministry began, volunteers worried about the rain or snow, but minus some rain during tear-down on one Saturday that first winter, there has never been inclement weather during a food distribution. It might rain in the morning or later in the afternoon, but not while people are picking up groceries.
It’s not always sunshine at St. Luke’s, of course. The threshold of the parish house still needs additional work. More seriously, a large tree in the church cemetery is close to toppling over and uprooting the tombstone of the Rev. John Perry, the church’s first rector, when it falls. Passers-by can already see the tombstone tilting out of the ground.
Even so, the Spirit seems to be acting on behalf of the church. Once, Crews was on her own preparing for a food distribution. It’s a strenuous process, moving the folding tables out onto the lawn, setting them up and carrying all of the filled grocery bags outside. Usually it’s at least a five-person job, but the congregation is small and sometimes people are not available to help.
“I went to the church by myself, as I do quite often now, and I’m struggling. I’m standing there by myself going, Lord, how am I going to get these tables out there by myself?
“I don’t know where these men came from, but two men appeared from out of nowhere. I saw them walking up the sidewalk, and one of them said to me, ‘Somebody said you need some help.’ I don’t know who said it….
“And sure enough, they came, they put my tables out. They brought out the first bags and put them on the tables for me, and I thanked them and they walked away. I still don’t know who those two men were.
“I just call it a blessing.”
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Summerlee Walter is the communications coordinator for the Diocese of North Carolina.
