Meggan Monday: Feed My Sheep makes sure no one goes hungry

A Gulfport outreach program that began in 1983 works every day to make sure that those facing food insecurities do not go hungry.

Let’s head over to Feed My Sheep to find out more about this program that feeds more than 350 people a day — including deliveries to shut-ins.

Feed My Sheep Executive Director David Lion said, “Our mission is that nobody goes hungry in the Gulfport area, and we serve, primarily, the low-income, homeless population. But a little bit that people don’t realize is that 60 percent of our business is home delivery meals to people who have houses but they’re elderly, homebound, disabled, unable to cook for themselves or unable to get out very easily, so we deliver meals Monday through Friday to about 350 people in the Gulfport area.

“I started out as a volunteer about 20 years ago. I was on the line serving one day a week on Thursdays and it escalated from there. They asked me to become a board member and then I was on the board for many, many years and continued to volunteer one day a week.”

“Then when COVID started, we needed a new executive director and I stepped in temporarily. And that was four years ago and I’m still here.”

“There’s a lot of people who come to this place at lunchtime — not the elderly and homebound we deliver to — but a lot of the homeless people have addiction issues. Currently, right now, we successfully have four people in rehab, one actually graduated a couple of weeks ago from Home of Grace, so it’s very nice to see people improve their situation in life and get off the streets — pick themselves up by the bootstraps, so to speak and make something happen for themselves. It’s very nice to see that.

“The times right now, with the super-high inflation and the cost of groceries, our numbers are up. We’re doing about 600 meals a day and there’s new people all the time that thought they’d never have to go to a soup kitchen that come here and are kind of a little embarrassed at first, if you will, but we welcome them, no questions asked.”

“Thanksgiving, of course, we’re doing the traditional Thanksgiving meal — turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, yams with brown sugar and marshmallows, cranberry sauce — it’s a big meal here.”

“Could not do this without the tremendous support and volunteers of the local community. Feed My Sheep has been blessed in that we have not even had a fundraiser since 2017. People just remember us in their year-end giving and we very much appreciate it.”

If you would like to contribute to Feed My Sheep, you can find a link on our website to learn more.

If you have an idea for a Meggan Monday, email us at megganmonday@WXXV25.com.