Churches to distribute produce, dairy

Several Oklahoma City churches will host a food distribution beginning at 8 a. m. Saturday at Emmanuel Tabernacle, 9700 N Western.

The Rev. Derrick Scobey, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, said fresh produce and dairy products will be given away, first come, first served, as part of the "COVID- 19 Nutrition Benefit" box. He said the boxes will include milk, butter and other dairy items in addition to the produce.

The effort is a partnership between Emmanuel Tabernacle, Ebenezer Baptist, New Life Baptist, St. Jude Baptist and World Vision.

Scobey said the churches plan to host similar distribution events each Saturday for the next seven weeks. He said World Vision had planned to partner with his northeast Oklahoma City church to have the distribution there, but he wanted Saturday's event to take place in northwest Oklahoma City. The pastor said he felt there was a need in northwest Oklahoma and many similar food giveaways have already been held in the northeast part of the city.

Bishop Jeffery D. Goldsmith, senior pastor of Emmanuel Tabernacle, said he hoped to see a crowd at his church on Saturday.

"We want to be a blessing to the kingdom of God," Goldsmith said. "We don't know where COVID-19 is going to take us. We don't know if we're going to go back into inhome sheltering or what it's going to be so we need to look at the opportunities that God has afforded us," Goldsmith said.

Scobey said the partnering churches also hoped to deliver boxes of food to residents in several Oklahoma Black towns. He said his wife, Angela Bush Scobey, had the idea to include the Black towns like Clearview/ Boley where she grew up, as well as Brooksville, Tatums, Langston and others.

Scobey said there are plans to take the food to Brooksville and Clearview this weekend but church leaders are still looking for volunteers to help deliver food boxes to Langston and other Black towns.

For more information or to volunteer, call Scobey at 427-9953.