Pintos, cornbread and slaw — a simple meal, which members of Fellowship Baptist Church of Ararat hope will not only feed hungry people, but will help fill their soul as well.

On Sunday, members of the local church prepared enough food to feed 600 people free of charge. They not only served those who came to the VFW building at Veterans Park, but they also delivered hundreds of meals to those who could not come for lack of transportation or who couldn’t come for health reasons.

The idea for the ministry came from the Logos (Hebrew for “The Word”) Sunday School class that began the Feeding the Multitudes ministry and hopes to continue doing meals like the one on Sunday in the future.

Feeding the Multitudes is based on Matthew Chapter 25, Verse 35 which reads, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

At the end of the day, mission coordinator Ric Marshall said about 400 meals were delivered out in the community and another 200 plates were served to those who came to the VFW building. He said the church wants to build off of this first time to do another meal in the coming months.

Food also was delivered to the Shepherd’s House, Mary Sue’s Safe Haven and to the Blu Vue motel.

“It was just tremendous how everybody from our church responded to this. Everybody was so gracious in giving — especially all the people who donated from community businesses,” Marshall said. “It was an awesome turn out, it was well worth the time and effort we put into it.”

Church member Ray Westmoreland delivered about 30 meals before sitting down to fellowship with those who came out to receive a home-cooked meal. He said delivering the meals was a blessing for him.

“Everyone was so thankful. I love going out and helping people. This was more of a blessing for me,” said Westmoreland.

Dee Baylor brought out members of her family to eat Sunday.

“It’s a blessing. It always means the world to me when you can get together and fellowship with others. These people are doing God’s work,” said Baylor. She helps out every Thanksgiving with Melva Houston’s dinner that is served at the First Baptist Church. She is also a former employee of the Shepherd’s House.

In addition to church members helping out, members of the community turned out Sunday morning to help prepare food. And members of the Surry Community College volleyball team worked on Saturday to cut up cabbage for the slaw. On Sunday, the girls cleaned up tables and washed dishes.

Teenagers in the Grace on Fire Ministry, which began at Fellowship and is organized by church member Stephanie Smith, turned out to help deliver meals and serve food. Mackenzy Rosser, Charlotte James and Jullian Penn said it was a great experience helping people.

Marshall said local Food Lion and Lowes Foods stores donated food, drinks and desserts. The Mount Airy Meat Center, Sagebrush, 13 Bones and Titans of Taste volunteered materials and resources for the meal.

“We had a tremendous amount of help from volunteers who came out to help us do this and to those who gave so graciously from the community. They helped to make this a wonderful success because we fed a lot of people today,” Marshall said.

He said it was a way to not only help feed those in need a good meal, but it was also a way for the church to minister to people in ways that it would not ordinarily be able to do.

“It’s compassion for people and making sure that you help your fellow man in any way you can,” Marshall said.

Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.