Nourishing the community
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on August 11, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Cianci Glaspie Jr., left, and Anthony Williams wave bags of chips and cold drinks at passing cars stop to for the free refreshments Wednesday in front of The Place of Refuge Church on Slocumb Street. This week was the fifth Wednesday that church members and other volunteers have gathered to pass out the goodies and each week more and more people take advantage of the gifts.
Every Wednesday around noon, you can find Anthony Williams in the same place.
Each week for over a month, Williams and several other volunteers have given away free snacks and drinks in front of the Place of Refuge Ministries church at 616 S. Slocumb St.
Set up under a tent in the nearly 90-degree heat, the group of five or six men flag down passing cars and hand the occupants refreshments through their windows, sending them off by saying, "We love you" and a wave.
Williams first conceived the idea as a response to the sweltering heat which hit Goldsboro in late July. During noon prayer at the church, Williams and a few of his friends would go out to help keep their community hydrated.
"Our pastors pray for the community, and prayer works," he said. "But it's also good to go out and do physical work to help the community."
The project grew quickly, both in numbers and in purpose. From simply keeping the people refreshed, Williams said that the work is now about making sure community members feel loved. During a year in which Goldsboro has seen five unsolved murders, Williams said it is important to reach out and try to help other people.
"It's one thing to see these young people die, but someone had a chance to save them," he said. "And if we don't do everything that we can, the blood may fall on our hands."
Williams, who teaches and coaches baseball at Southern Wayne High School, has had former students begin helping him every week.
Ciancie Glaspie Jr. was Williams' student in 2008, and has been his friend ever since. For him, spending time handing out refreshments is about more than just material goods.
"People get to a point where they don't feel like they're loved or cared about. They don't have any hope," he said. "Jesus gives hope, so that's what were out here to do."
In the five weeks since the program began, Williams has seen a marked response from the community. By the time the volunteers left on August 10, they had given refreshments to over 200 people. Each time a car drives by, the volunteers flag them down, shouting "free, free!" and holding out snacks. They race back and forth from the tent to the car, making sure the occupants get whatever they want as quickly as possible.
People from the neighborhood, some of whom are unaffiliated with the church, have come to help the volunteers and donated to their cause. Lance Woodard, a friend of Williams' who has been with the program since the start, has been very happy with the reception by the community.
"It started out as just a few people," he said. He waved as a car drove by, the occupants yelling "we love you!" as they passed. "Now we have some familiar people coming by every week."
Woodard said he was thankful for the growing group of volunteers who have joined the program every week.
"People didn't have to do it, but they did it anyway."
Helping community members for free, with no strings attached, is a large part of how Williams wants to bring people in the Slocumb Street area together. He wants to clean up what he considers the street's bad reputation, and turn the Place of Refuge church into a literal place for people to seek comfort and safety. To accomplish this will take work, and unifying the church, neighborhood and law enforcement, he said.
Williams hopes that his efforts and those of his fellow volunteers will spark a chain reaction, inciting others to spread compassion.
"By handing out drinks, we love on the community, and love is contagious," he said. "With every soda or bag of chips we give out, we want people to know that we don't want anything from them, we just want to love them."