According to the ChildWatch article by Marion Wright Edelman, entitled Ask the Question: When are we going to end Child Poverty in America, (Roanoke Tribune, September 26, 2019, p.2), new data has been released recently from the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Almost one-third of the 38.1 million poor people in the United States are children.” Some may point to the reduction in child poverty in 2018 but “the number of poor children—11.9 million (16.2 percent of all children)—remains unacceptable. More than 70 percent of poor children live in working families and the youngest children are the poorest.”
In our area the need is great, and growing! In the last 13 years poverty has increased in the Smith Mountain Lake region. Bedford County has 9% of its citizens living in poverty, Franklin County has 13% and Roanoke City has 19% of its citizens living in poverty. In 2016 the U. S. Census Bureau defined the poverty level as a combined annual income of approximately $24,300 for a family of four. (Virginia residents (all ages) living in poverty in Virginia, data provided by Voices for Virginia’s children, datacenter.kidscount.org.). The need to help children and families can be overwhelming! Many organizations are working to feed neighbors. The String Bean, Corn and Peas Concert is one program that is filling this need.
Rev. Kelvin Edwards, Sr., pastor of sponsoring churches Halesford United Methodist Church (UMC) and Epworth UMC, has been helping his mom, Doris Dillard, at the Mt. Zion A.M.E. Food Bank for over 25 years! They have seen some of the children described above. Rev. Edwards has noticed that some of the most nutritional vegetables, as string beans, corn, and peas, the ones that most help these children and their families, were the most expensive to purchase.
The idea of collecting these vegetables to give to area food banks was born in 2012, the first year the concert was held. The String Bean, Corn, and Peas Concert has been and continues to be a vehicle to raise awareness of hunger in the Bedford/Franklin County areas, as well as in Roanoke City. The concert is a way to collect these canned foods and to take a stand against hunger in our local communities.
Success! Blessings! Both were witnesses at the String Bean, Corn and Peas Concert, held recently at Halesford United Methodist Church (UMC). The concert featured soloist Sharon Jones, the Main Street Men quartet, and Halesford Gospel Singers Choir. Door prizes were distributed between singers and light refreshments and fellowship were enjoyed after the music.
At the concert, it was announced that the goal of 800 cases was met and exceeded! In 2019, God blessed us with so much we collected over 1200 CASES (12 cans in a case) of canned string beans, corn and peas to distributed to 10 area food banks and food ministries!
Halesford UMC and Epworth UMC thank God for the 1200 cases of canned string beans, corn and peas collected this year and thank the churches that held food drives as well as the businesses and individual donors. We know there is a lot of work still to do, and hope you will come next year to the String Bean, Corn and Peas Concert, to be held in September, 2020.
