NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Despite the rainy weather and COVID-19 causing some changes, the Feeding 5,000 event in Newport News continued.
“To make sure we keep the King legacy alive by taking care of the disenfranchised and those who cannot take care of themselves,” said Dr. Willard Maxwell Jr., pastor of New Beech Grove Baptist Church and president of the Newport News branch of the NAACP. “So, this is what it’s all about - working to take care of the community and those in need.”
Andrew Shannon, founder of Feeding 5,000, says this is the 23rd year for the event. He said they have members who do weekly deliveries of meals for those in need; however, the mass feeding events take place four times a year: Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, Juneteenth and around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Shannon said that normally, they incorporate a parade; however, because of wet weather and COVID, they just held an indoor event with speakers, music and the passing out of hundreds of takeout meals.
In addition to the approximately 500 meals given away at New Beech Grove Baptist Church on Sunday, Shannon said thousands more were sent with various churches and organizations in Portsmouth, Suffolk and Norfolk, in addition to Newport News. They will also continue deliveries on Monday.
“After this feeding in unity, then we actually go into the community, and we deliver food meals to individual families, the elderly, the disabled - we go door to door and we deliver,” Shannon added.
