Growing Tennessee Food Ministry Feeds Hundreds

Serena Miller, a longtime member of River’s Edge Fellowship AG in Elizabethton, Tennessee, worked as a special education instructor at a school district for twenty years. But during 2020’s Covid disruptions, she received an unexpected letter terminating her employment.  

“It was devastating to me,” Miller recalls. “My husband says God knew I would never quit that job, so He had them fire me.”

That abrupt ending led to an invitation from the church to help establish and expand its small Loaves and Fishes food pantry where Miller already volunteered. At the time, the food pantry had no director, and no consistent way of finding donations.  

“It was basically me trying to figure it out,” says Miller.

Six years later, thanks to her on-going leadership and the work of many volunteers, Loaves and Fishes gives away 30 to 50 boxes of grocery items per night and 250 or so hot meals nightly four times a week.

The grocery boxes contain dry goods, meat, dairy, frozen items, juice, and ice cream, about 40 lbs of food. Hot meals are served in restaurant-style to-go boxes and include fare such as hamburgers, hot dogs, baked spaghetti and side dishes. All of this is given to recipients in the parking lot or handed to them at a drive-through window in the ministry’s large warehouse.

“Some people are so hungry they start eating it before they get out of the parking lot,” says Miller.

Some walk to the church, some ride bicycles, and many carpool to save money.

Elizabethton is a town of around 25,000 tucked into the far northeast corner of the state in the Appalachian Mountains. Known for its scenic beauty and passion for football, it also has suffered the scourge of poverty and its attendant vices.

River’s Edge Fellowship and Loaves and Fishes are helping to ameliorate those effects. The church of 50 or so regular attendees has added five families who began as recipients, and several who used to come through the line now volunteer.

Jessica was such a one: a recipient who says economic hardship, divorce, and “bad choices” had driven her to live in her Chevy Tahoe though she held a full-time, forty-hour-per-week job.

“I slept in it, put up window blockers and bounced back and forth between [parking lots at] Walmart, Lowe’s, and my work,” Jessica says. “I was on a downward spiral. I didn’t do drugs or anything but was just allowing people who were not close to God to rule my life.”

She heard about Loaves and Fishes and came one night to ask for help.

“They welcomed me with open arms and gave me hygiene materials and toiletries,” she says.

Soon, Jessica began attending River’s Edge Fellowship and volunteering at Loaves and Fishes every day after work. She now greets “every single person that comes through the line, asking if they have prayer requests, praying for them, and relating to their situations and telling them my story,” she says. “God has led a couple of people to the church because of my story. I use my testimony and past to relate to people out here. They feel comfortable.”

Jessica knows the names and backgrounds of most recipients. She is taking college classes for a degree in finance and growing in her calling as an evangelist.

“Life happens but through those situations I found a wonderful church and a wonderful ministry, and I found God,” she says. “It completely turned my life around. My life is full of God now. I’m here at the church every time the doors are open.”

Many volunteers arrive after work to help with the check-in process, prepare to-go boxes, and hand them to people. One group of volunteers donated time and materials to build the sizable warehouse whose floorspace and thirty freezers are “busting out of the seams with donations,” says Miller. “God is blessing us tremendously. I never can be too thankful for what he’s doing.”

The church facility also has three showers, and a veteran offered to oversee an adjunct ministry making showers available to homeless people. Once a week, those who need them receive clean towels, changes of clothes, blankets and hygiene items like body wash, shampoo, and razors, and enjoy a hot shower.

Miller has continued to lead the ministry after being diagnosed with a disease that put her in a wheelchair. She and her husband of 30 years live one mile from the church. She is constantly doing paperwork, unpacking boxes, and seeking donations from community organizations and businesses. Much of her work is building relationships to secure funding and food.

“God blesses us but doesn’t expect me to just sit back and let it roll in,” she says. “We have to work for it and create relationships with people in the community. It’s a lot of hard work and a lot of fun. You meet so many people who care and love others.”

The pain of losing her career in education has gone away in light of the assignment God has given her at River’s Edge Fellowship.

“I know this is what God wanted me to do and where I’m supposed to be,” she says. “I can’t imagine doing anything else now. Even with my health issues, it’s worth it.” [PhotoGallery path = "/sitecore/Media Library/PENews/Photo Galleries/2026/TN Food Ministry"]