SUFFOLK, Va. — It's not every day I get to take over a Sunday church service.
Though, to be fair, it's not every day I meet someone as remarkable as Yvonne Green. When she's not worshiping at East End Baptist Church, you'll find volunteering at the church's food bank. It's just a couple of miles down the road from the church's new sanctuary.
"85% of our people walk and they can't get here," Green explained. "So, we stay in our old neighborhood to service the community."
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Green meets people where they are, because she's been there too.
"I did not realize that we were poor until I was grown," she said. "During that time, I never missed a meal due to lack of food."
She was one of six children growing up. Times were tough. But decades later, this now retired nurse works to end the cycle of hunger.
"We're buying gift cards, showing them how to shop, how to take that $25 and use it to the utmost," she said.
Green's friends and fellow church members Angela Turntine and Keir Holland put me up to this surprise.
"If you're blessed, you should be a blessing," Turntine told me. "She lives that daily."
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"She loves to feed. She feeds us all the time," Holland added.
They tell me Green runs circles around people half as old as she is. It was my honor to surprise her with a News 3 Everyday Hero award during a recent church service. The honor comes with a $300 Visa gift card from community partner Southern Bank.
Green told me she had to find her heart again after that surprise. That's exactly where she'd tell you to search, too, if her story serves as an inspiration to make a difference.
"Do it from your heart," she said. "If you can't do it from your heart, leave it alone. Go do something else."
