Way back near the beginning of Community During Chaos, we spoke to Christian rap producing legend Tee Wyla. At the time Wyla is at the very beginnings of what would eventually become the non-profit organization Feed the Hope that gave away hundreds of thousands of pounds of food in 2020.
What started with pop up food drops in Philly to feed looted areas surrounding COVID & Civil Unrest, turned into something much bigger. Eventually, Wyla helped secure a supplier who gave them 2,000 pounds of food for their drops.
That number grew to 7,000 pounds which sounds like a lot but it could only feed about 120 people. From there, Wyla and his team started asking the church for donations, and then a partnership with Convoy of Hope supplied 36,000 pounds. That would only last three weeks.
Tee was even able to partner with the Amish and they delivered as well!
At that time, they had gone 16 weeks straight and were bringing in 14 – 16 thousand pounds of food (eggs, milk, rice, water, and more groceries) 131,000 individual meals. Christian Life Center. We do this because we care.
He had around 100 volunteers rotating through the food drops and people were being blessed by serving.
“People forget about themselves when they serve,” he said. “This is designed for the church to operate and mobilize. If the church were to do what it was supposed to do there wouldn’t be a WIC…Welfare program… foster care…and less drug addiction.”
It was important for him to educate people in the community and in the church that serving their neighbors was truly the reflection of God and the church outsiders needed to see. He wanted his children to see it as well and brought them along.
“There’s a greater need for dialog and working adults,” he explained. “[Getting] task forces, going into communities and finding out where there’s a need. Where’s the most crime, where do you need help?”
Another program they were implementing was Adopt the Block. This is when you take a group of 20 to 30 volunteers in crime-heavy areas. They are there to service that area, commit to the community, and work with the police. Then after a few weeks, there’s a community day and have the law enforcement there amongst the people serving as well.
As stated at the top of the article, eventually this weekly outreach became Feed the Hope. They created an ambitious goal for the Thanksgiving season.
Feed the Hope became a coalition comprised of twelve churches throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Delaware, who sponsored the distribution of free food for inner-city communities throughout the region.
The event was held on November 21, 2020, and distributed approximately 500,000 pounds of nutritious food throughout the Northeastern region.
“Our goal is not political or social. We are a group of unified churches who desire to infuse the hope of Jesus into at-risk communities with a gift of food,” said Mark English, Lead Pastor of Christian Life Center, a missionary-focused and outreach-based church located in the Greater Philadelphia Area.
“Churches have a mandate in God’s Word, Acts 2:10, to be vehicles of reconciliation. We have decided to lock-arms with other like-minded churches and become agents of change in our communities. Food distribution is just the beginning.”
The coalition partnered to distribute the food at over 12 sites across four states. The group used demographic data to select underserved and at-risk communities, including Philadelphia, Trenton, Brooklyn, and Dover, to name a few.
Distribution sites would distribute 1,000 boxes of food weighing 40 pounds each. Feed the Hope boxes included both perishable and non-perishable items just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The event impacted thousands of people and hundreds of families who needed it the most.
Final 2020 Stats:
575,396 pounds of food and 479,500 meals distributed in the Philadelphia area through his local church, Christian Life Center where he oversaw their outreach.
(With Feed the Hope for one-day event)
12 churches
• 24 distribution sites
• 4 States
• Approximately 1,100 volunteers total
• 500,000 lbs. of Food
• 417,000 meals
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