Impact and Give Back | Prodisee Pantry
Feeding is Believing
-Liesel Schmidt
Have you ever been hungry? For the thousands of local families we serve, the answer is yes!
Deann Servos’s recent speech poses the question, a question that most of us never ponder. We pass by homeless or hungry people on the street each day and give little thought to how we would survive, being in their situation.
But that very thought was one that haunted the mind and heart of three very determined, very Christ-filled women: Deann Servos, Christy Inabinett and Sheri McCrory. And so, in 2003, they came together to found Prodisee Pantry as an outreach ministry of Spanish Fort United Methodist Church. At their first distribution on November 18, 2003, 16 other volunteers helped to box up and share Thanksgiving dinner with those in the community who needed to be fed.
We bring hope by feeding the physical, emotional and spiritual hunger of Baldwin County families in need. Our compassionate volunteers provide food, hugs and encouragement to 10,000 families annually.
Currently, an average of 900 families visit each month seeking help from Prodisee Pantry for the most basic human needs, food and a kind word. Most say they never thought they would ever have to ask for help. But hunger is invisible. It is your neighbor. It is the young mom with two kids in line at the grocery store with just a loaf of bread. It is the elderly woman in the pew next to you at church.
Their inspiration was simple and continues to be, after 20 years: to feed both invisible and visible hunger with food, faith and family. Which, essentially, is where the name “Prodisee” was born. “We are referencing the prodigal son story in the Bible where the father welcomes his son back, hence the PRODI prefix,” explains Servos. “The SEE comes from Wesleyan concept that we can see Christ’s love through our good works of service.”
At its core, Prodisee Pantry’s mission is based on Matthew 25:35: “I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.” Over the past 20 years, Baldwin County families have visited Prodisee Pantry over 208,000 times, with more than 510,000 individual visits for spiritual, emotional and physical food.