It’s Personal: Feeding Kids’ Physical and Spiritual Needs

Jenny Fikes stands at the yellow door of the Newport Church of the Nazarene, where she often invites children inside for after-school activities. With joyful enthusiasm, she welcomes and leads us into the building and to an office. Within minutes of meeting her, it becomes clear that Fikes, the church’s children’s pastor, enjoys her job and is committed to spreading Jesus’s message of love.

Fikes’s early years positioned her for a life of giving, sharing and teaching others. As a child, she was in and out of foster care, abandoned at a young age by her mother. Having experienced homeless, lacking basic needs and not always knowing where her next meal would come from, she believes she was being prepared for where she is today.

Fikes’s childhood also contributed to her own spiritual growth and development, ultimately leading her to become a Christian teacher. Because of her experiences, Fikes understands how important it is that young people have access to fresh, nutritious food. Because many of the children the church serves come from low-income households and rarely get nutritious food, Fikes has established a strong relationship with UMCFood to support her after-school ministry program. Fikes sees UMCFood as an essential lifeline, sharing that the ministry wouldn’t survive without UMCFood’s support.

“God put UMCFood here,” she said. “That way the church can better help the children and allow the school to do effective programming and teaching. UMCFood teaches the children about God’s goodness – it’s the manifestation of God in the world.”