New Life Baptist Church, Walmart work together to provide a merry Christmas

Walmart Distribution associate Michael Fry and New Life Baptist Church Christmas breakfast coordinator Joy Rader serve up a hot breakfast at the church food pantry's annual Christmas breakfast.

For more than 50 local families, a visit to the New Life Baptist Church food pantry last Wednesday was about more than food to get through the week. It was a dose of Christmas cheer.

For five years now, the church on the city's southeast side has been hosting a Christmas breakfast for the community's needy in addition to the weekly food distribution.

During the last three years, New Life has partnered with Walmart Distribution and the Greencastle Walmart store, providing a breakfast along with a merry environment including Christmas music and gift giveaways.

The food pantry is run 52 weeks per year by Barbara Pitt, but the Christmas breakfast is overseen by Joy Rader, who has seen the event grow in the last five years.

"It started out with just a handful of ladies at the church," Rader said. "I know the need is out there and every year it grows. Every week we have the food pantry. It's such a necessity. We'd like to see the numbers shrinking."

She said the program really took off during the third year when Walmart came into the fold as part of its Fight Hunger program.

"It's effortless," she said. "It just comes together."

New Life Pastor Michael Wren said the church and community partnership has been excellent.

"They love the ministry as much as we do," Wren said. "It's turned out to be a great blessing to everybody."

Walmart Distribution Human Resources Manager Rick Alexander said the goal is to "kind of be in the background and be the support for (New Life's) ministry."

However, Walmart associates are also in visible roles on the morning of the breakfast -- flipping and serving pancakes, handing out food and signing people up for toy giveaways. Several associates even brought family members along to help in the effort.

"Our goal is to provide groceries for this time of year and provide a good, hot breakfast," Alexander said.

Walmart associates even gathered around 2,000 pounds of food, which was split among the New Life pantry and two other local food pantries.

The goal, for all involved, is to keep the effort going in the coming years, hoping the need will decrease but knowing it won't go away entirely.

"Our goal is to remain a part of this with joy and just be a supporter," Alexander said.