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Driven by God and public support, the Christian Service Center in Andalusia gave back to its community with a produce giveaway of 60,000 pounds of food on Wednesday, June 12.

Christian Service Center Director Katie Cooper received a phone call the previous day from Feeding the Gulf Coast, a food bank in the Mobile area, about a produce truck that had broken down.

“The food bank wanted to see if we could receive it since it was unable to make it to its destination. I told them to let me know what was on the truck and how much food there was. They informed me they would call me back, which was five minutes later. I said yes and we took it,” Cooper said.

The CSC’s last produce giveaway was three years ago during the pandemic.

“I called my old volunteers, and they all told me they would be there to help. I never know exactly how many will show up, but thank the Lord they do because we couldn’t do it without them. While it was unfortunate the truck was broken down, it was a blessing to be able to do this for our community.”

According to Cooper, the truck held approximately 30 pallets of cucumbers, zucchini, cabbage, red-seeded grapes, and eggplant. Each pallet held about 2,000 pounds of food.

“As expensive as food is lately, I know I would be very appreciative. I hate not to say yes when they offer us free food to hand out to everyone. It’s certainly a blessing any time we can give back to the community,” she said.

Cooper added that the CSC never knows a specific time for the food bank to call.

“A few years ago, we received some fruit and other produce through grants as a result of COVID. One summer, we did a total of three handouts over a two-month stretch. They called me around 2 p.m. the day before and asked if we could take it the next morning, so it was very short notice. After I sent an email to the Opp radio station and put it on our Christian Service Center Facebook page, it went viral from there,” she said.

Cooper expressed her appreciation to all those who helped make the giveaway possible.

“It’s not a one-man show. It may be a decision if I want the truck or not, but it cannot happen without dedicated, faithful volunteers. I want to thank them for their hard work and assistance with this wonderful blessing we were able to provide. People arrived before the volunteers got here and parked their vehicles to help cars as they drove through the parking lot,” Cooper said.

The Christian Service Center is located at 403 South Three Notch Street in Andalusia. Additional locations in Covington County are in Florala and Opp. For more information call the Andalusia location at 334-222-3840.