I Choose Life Ministry kicked off its food pantry ministry at the Knox Street ball field this week by giving away truck loads of food including 5,500 pounds of chicken, slabs of ribs, fish and shrimp.

“We’re not a canned food ministry,” said J.R. Peterson, ministry founder. “Jesus didn’t give away canned food. He gave away fish. We want our food pantry to be that kind of ministry.”

Seven hundred people participated in the food pantry ministry and received a variety of food items, from cabbage and watermelons to Hot Pockets and ice cream.

I Choose Life Ministries purchased the food from the Montgomery Area Food Bank primarily with funds that were donated to the food pantry ministry.

“God has plenty of money and, if we ask, He will make it available to show His love and bring people to Christ,” Peterson said.

“At the food pantry Saturday, we had a speaker system and we had prayers going all day. People came for the food but they left having heard God’s Word. At I Choose Life Ministries, we realize that everyone likes food, and we are going to use our food pantry to reach as many people as possible with God’s word.”

Saturday’s food pantry was a kickoff event for I Choose Life Ministries permanent food pantry that will open during July.

“We have a building, an old paint building, on North 3 Notch Street and it will be open for food, prayer and Bible study,” Peterson said.

Funding to stock the I Choose Life Ministries Food Pantry will come, in part, from a “shrimp business’ that the ministry has initiated.

The ministry has a refrigerated truck that is used to transport shrimp purchased in Apalachicola, Florida, on a weekly basis.

“We go down to the gulf and get shrimp right off the boat,” Peterson said.

“We get about 700 pounds that we sell for $6 a pound. That’s way below fish market prices. We run a route to Marianna, Dothan, Midland City and Ozark and on to Troy.

“And, if we have shrimp left, we’ll go on to Barbour County, to Eufaula.”

Peterson said food will bring people to the ministry and, there, they will be fed spiritually as well as physically.

“Most of the money for our ministry will be generated out of our shrimp business,” Peterson said. “And, what other money we need, God will provide through donations to the ministry.”

I Choose Life Ministries is an outreach ministry that seeks to take the gospel outside the four walls of the church and into the Pike County community.

For more information about I Choose Life Ministries, to donate items to the food pantry or to volunteer, call 334-268-3555.