Men's ministry program purchases mobile kitchen
By Steve Herring
Published in News on August 10, 2016 1:46 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- Members of the Men's Ministry at Mount Olive First Pentecostal Church are ready to cook.
But first they are going to have to shop for pots, pans and other cooking utensils as well as a 10,000-watt generator.
Once that is done they will still have to train on how to use the church's new mobile kitchen.
The kitchen on wheels boasts a full-size refrigerator, chest freezer, microwave, exhaust fan, four-burner gas stove, flat skillet, deep fryer, two food preparation stations, hot and cold running water and storage space.
The unit, that arrived earlier this month, is also heated and air conditioned.
It can be used at fundraisers, community events and to help in times of emergencies.
"We are going to have a presence with it," said Tommy Sanders, president of the Men's Ministry. "Of course it is about getting people connected to our church. We do more than go to church. We do a lot of outreach. We are a big church. We do well. When I give it doesn't bother me because I know it goes back into the community.
"We are big into missions, too. But you have to take care of business at home. This is just another way of doing it. The Men's Ministry is going to be setting up the rules (for using the kitchen)."
The late David Letchworth was president of the Men's Ministry, and it was under his leadership that the project happened, Sanders said.
The kitchen will be used on a regional basis and not sent across state lines. It will be limited to around a 100-mile radius of Mount Olive, he said.
The idea is not just to show up at a disaster scene, and possibly be in the way, but to coordinate services through emergency management, Sanders said.
"You don't want to go somewhere and roll up and get in the way of somebody," Sanders said. "There is a process that you have go to go through."
Sanders said he will be contacting the Wayne County Offices of Emergency Services, but wants to have the mobile kitchen ready first.
That is expected by mid-September.
"We are proud of it," he said. "We think we can use it to help some folks and raise money for events. I think we are actually going to kick it off during Upward Soccer (the church's youth soccer outreach program) and serve refreshments out of it.
"We have got to get some people trained on all of this. You just can't come in here and turn on the burners and start cooking. You are dealing with gas and heat. We have got to set some guidelines up and when we are going to use it. Hopefully we will never have to use it in a disaster. But it will be there if we do need it."
For example, most emergency utility crews stage at the Wayne Count y Fairgrounds at Dudley, Sanders said.
But even then the church could not just roll up with the trailer, but would need to coordinate with emergency management, he said.
"The idea I have, what they would need more than anything would be for us to go up there and when those utility workers are staging in the morning, as opposed to them having to go somewhere and get fast food, we could cook right there on site for them and get them out on the job," he said. "That is kind of the idea. We will learn as we go along."
The idea came up in August of 2014, and the decision to pursue the project was made in January 2015 with fundraising beginning that February.
"Believe it or not, we were at Kerr Lake," Sanders said. "It was me and Shelton Lewis. We had both fished in that area. He liked to ski. I said, 'Why don't you ski from Ocracoke Island to Swan Quarter?' I said, 'It isn't but 27 and a half miles.' He said he would."
From that was born the Pamlico Passage fundraiser.
It also was decided that Sanders would use his Sea Pro fishing boat on June 6, 2015, to pull Lewis across the open sound.
Donations in that fundraiser ranged from just a few dollars to one donor who gave $6,000.
While the church congregation was very giving, the fundraiser garnered support from a large area including Pitt, Lenoir, Duplin, Wilson, Halifax counties.
The church also sold T-shirts, but only ordered a few at first because it did not want to end up with a bunch left unsold.
Nearly 400 were sold.
"There had been some talk prior (about the project) to that from Doug Bartlett, our pastor before Jeff (Dail)," Sanders said. "We got the OK to do it. With the help of the church and community our initial goal was like $15,000. When the money started coming in we raised the bar. We were going to get something used, more like a concession-type stand -- nothing as elaborate as cooking.
"But we raised a lot of money. I think we have a few thousand dollars left to buy a generator. We are going to try and put a shelter over this thing, too."
Approximately $37,000 was raised.
The mobile kitchen cost $27,600 and was purchased from Worldwide Trailer Manufacturing in Waycross, Ga.
"We actually picked it up in December of '15," Sanders said. "Being that we raised the money, we wanted to decorate it real nice with wraps on the outside with logos. I had a couple of quotes of between $6,000 and $8,000. I got a guy over in Wilson to do it for $2,500. We had to wait a little longer, but it was worth the wait to save between $5,000 and $5,500.
"It has been very satisfying for me. It's amazing what you can do if you get people involved. You can't be a lone wolf and try to get things done. You have got to have the right leadership in the church, a willing congregation and a willing community."