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Prince George's County partnering with community groups to tackle food insecurity


{p}Saturday afternoon a long line of cars wrapped around the streets surrounding Ebenezer Church of God in Hyattsville. Every Saturday amid COVID-19, the church has been handing out groceries, hot meals, even school supplies. (Image: ABC7 Photo){/p}

Saturday afternoon a long line of cars wrapped around the streets surrounding Ebenezer Church of God in Hyattsville. Every Saturday amid COVID-19, the church has been handing out groceries, hot meals, even school supplies. (Image: ABC7 Photo)

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Saturday afternoon a long line of cars wrapped around the streets surrounding Ebenezer Church of God in Hyattsville. Every Saturday amid COVID-19, the church has been handing out groceries, hot meals, even school supplies.

“We’re just trying to give back and we believe that’s part of our Christian responsibility,” Pastor Oliver Subryan said.

As cars drove up, volunteers greeted them with music and dancing to help spread some joy during these tough times.

“I’ve been here for almost 30 years and this is the first time I’ve ever seen my church this happy. They are the happiest, it seems to me, when they are giving,” Pastor Subryan said. “What we are doing here is benefiting the community, but I think in a greater way this is benefiting us.”

The church estimates serving about 1,500 people per weekend, but today it was able to make an even greater impact by partnering with the Prince George’s County Executive's Office.

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Since April, Prince George’s County has been working with United Way on the “Stand Up & Deliver” program. The program is to address food insecurity.

“The goal with Stand Up & Deliver is to ensure that we get as many meals, whether they be hot meals or shelf-stable food to as many residents in Prince George’s County. The County Executive, her mission, and one of her priorities since she started office was that we had a big problem in Prince George’s County with food insecurity and a food desert. The pandemic didn’t make it any better. So Stand Up & Deliver is to stand up, to do something about it, and deliver on her [County Executive Angela Alsobrooks] promise,” Sonja Welborne-Rice, Prince George’s County Director of Stakeholder Engagement said.

The church planned to distribute about 400 boxes of food Saturday, but through the Stand Up & Deliver program that number more than doubled. Welborne-Rice said the county provided an additional 650 boxes of groceries to be handed out.

“We’ve designed it so that a family of four could eat for four days out of this box. We are really looking forward to help people to supplement their pantry because we know there are not enough funds to feed everyone, every day,” Daryl Sims with the Prince George’s County Executive’s Office said.

The Stand Up & Deliver program is also helping to keep people employed and businesses a float. Stand Up & Deliver partners with different restaurants and businesses to prep the food.

“That impact has been tremendous. This has been a model that we set up, so they could get regular opportunities to have revenue coming in. This also means that they’ve been able to sustain their workforce and keep them on board as we work through this pandemic and also, they’ve been gracious enough to give us pricing so that we could feed so many people in our county,” Sims said.

While people waited in line Saturday afternoon at Ebenezer Church of God, the county staff also made sure people were filling out the 2020 census.

On Monday, Aug. 10 there will be a Stand Up & Deliver food distribution event from 10:00 a.m. to noon at AMC Academy 8, behind Beltway Plaza. The address is 6198 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770.

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