Wallace residents bring ‘food trailer ministry’ home

WALLACE — When Brandon Kelley of Wallace went on a mission trip to West Virginia a few years ago, he didn’t know the trip would result in a calling to create a new ministry back home. He joined others on the mission to a town that had been greatly affected by the closure of a coal mine, leaving people without jobs or the economic resources to move elsewhere.

Kelley noticed something a church in the area was doing to help.

“We saw they had a food trailer there,” Kelley said in an interview with Duplin Journal. “They went out in the community and served food. It was all free just to share the Gospel.”

On a second trip to the area, he talked with church members who sponsored the food trailer in West Virginia. What they were doing stayed with him long after returning to Wallace.

“God was just laying on my heart this was an awesome ministry. I shared with Jimmy Crumpler and our wives. We began to feel this is where God was leading us.”

Heeding that calling, they worked to bring the concept of a food trailer ministry to this area in North Carolina.

“Within a year, out of two fundraisers, we were able to purchase a $60,000 food trailer,” Kelley said. “The community came together and helped us.”

They named the food trailer, Fish & Loaves.

Kelley and his wife, along with the Crumplers, take the food trailer to schools, churches and community events, including the Wallace Christmas Parade in December, where they set up beside the Wallace Depot and prepared 500 hot dogs to serve after the parade.

“Everything we do is free,” Kelley said, adding they are able to do that thanks to food and financial donations.

Kelley said it was very important to get out into the community and have ministries outside of the church.

“A lot of times, we get the misconception that the church is the building, but we’re the church,” he said. “Jesus didn’t sit in the temple and preach. He met them where they were. That’s our goal, to meet the need of the people physically through food, but most importantly, spiritually through the Gospel.”