Feeding Your Neighbors

Elizabeth City, NC

With food from Operation Blessing, Eastern Star Church has been meeting people’s needs in Elizabeth City for more than 15 years. Now there’s an even greater need due to COVID-19.

“A lot of people have lost their job due to Coronavirus,” says Pastor Brackett. “People who wake-up in the morning wondering, 'What am I going to eat today?' Or go to sleep at night wondering, 'What's going to happen tomorrow?'”

LaToya Armstrong works two jobs to provide for her daughter, Zakeya, who’s an honor roll student.

“Well, being a single mom, it’s very hard,” says LaToya. “At State University, I used to work like four days out of the week. Now I only work two. When it got cut, I did cry because I didn’t know what to do.”

Right now, these food distributions are helping the Armstrongs and many other families fill the gap. To keep everyone safe, volunteers place groceries directly into people’s cars. As both a volunteer and a recipient, Coza knows what it’s like to both give and receive. 

“It's money that I don't have to spend on food,” says Coza. “God has blessed me tremendously. I help pack the food. I’ll take the food to the cars, because I know that what they're doing here is impacting so many lives. I want to be a blessing to others and that's why I come here.”

Pastor Brackett says, “There's times we have like, 150 families come through here within the hour or two hours that we serve.”

Thanks to Operation Blessing partners, parents like LaToya are able to feed their families.

“It makes me feel happy that it's people out here that want to help us,” says LaToya. “We needed help and we finally got it.”

Coza says, “The Lord, He gives me what I need when I need it the most. I just want to say, ‘Thank you from the bottom of my heart,’ because what you do, you are giving life.”