Oklahoma Feeding Program Surpasses One Million Meals Served

With only a desire to help, a prayer, and $5,000 in seed
money, AGAPE Mission has officially served over one million meals to their
community of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

In 2000, Sherri K. Smith saw God answer her prayer of three
years by providing a way for her to leave her job in the corporate world and
dedicate her life to fulltime hands-on ministry. Seeing the need of hunger in
her community, Smith knew that someone had to do something and she felt that
God was calling her to be that someone. Although she had no money for the
mission, Smith knew the heart of her church, First Assembly of God Church, now Spirit Church, in
Bartlesville, Oklahoma and decided to ask her pastor if the church would help
to fund a feeding program for the community.

Smith and her husband
approached their pastor at the time, B. R. Brummett, over a Sunday lunch
and started conversations about their vision. By the time lunch was over, Sherri
had agreed to make a presentation to the board at the church.  Smith was notified of a restaurant in a nearby
city that went out of business and agreed to sell everything in it to Smith for
$5,000. “Even though it was a great deal, she may have asked for $5 million
because we didn’t have a cent,” says Smith.

Following approval from the board, Brummett brought
Smith’s dream and financial need before the congregation. “All of a sudden,
Sister Naomi Reeder stood up and said that she would give the money needed,”
recalls Smith. Reeder, a widow who had spent 24 years working in a local school
cafeteria, told Smith that she understood the need of the children and the
community from her previous work and wanted to be part of Smith’s solution.
Along with her financial donation, Smith states that Reeder became her right
arm until she passed away.

“It was then that everything just started to fall into
place,” says Smith. Throughout the next several years, AGAPE would start three
additional feeding programs in addition to their daily on-site meal program.
The on-site meal program, which has served over one million meals, requires no
application or proof of income to receive a hot meal other than providing a
date of birth and an address if applicable. Smith believes that service to
anyone in need is what she and her ministry are called to do. “When Jesus fed
the 5,000,” Smith states, “he didn’t ask them their income or if they had had a
cigarette or a drink that day.”

Oklahoma district superintendent, Darryl Wootton, who had
just moved to Bartlesville in 2002 to pastor Spirit Church, arrived while AGAPE
was still in its infancy but states that he immediately fell in love with the
ministry. “AGAPE was really seeking to fulfill the heartbeat of Jesus by
sharing God’s love with the least, the last, and the lost,” he says.

In March of 2005, AGAPE started their Food for Kids
initiative which serves local elementary school children who do not have access
to adequate food on the weekends or over holiday breaks. “We started the kids
program with one of the most impoverished schools,” Wootton says, “and provided
sacks to teachers who then identified students who needed them most and placed
them in their bags.” Wootton reports that this program experienced exponential growth
in a short amount of time and the benefits of the feeding program were noticed
by district level school officials. “We actually had the superintendent of the
schools we were working with reach out to us and share that the nutrition on
the weekends was helping the kids do better in school and on standardized
testing,” he says.

ow serving in over 14 local schools, AGAPE fills over 600
sacks a week that go home with children who have been identified as at-risk by
the school. “Each child goes home with one sack containing anywhere from 8-15
food items,” Smith says. She reports that they now hand out an average of
20,000 bags per year.

 AGAPE organizes all
classroom parties for what Smith identifies as the least funded elementary
school in the area. “We provide cupcakes and juice and organize their class
parties so they can have school celebrations, too,” says Smith. Volunteers for
this program come from AGAPE and other local churches who have caught onto
AGAPE’s vision for making sure no child in their community goes without.

AGAPE also offers a senior meals program to individuals over
60 years old and will assist those individuals in getting food on a
case-by-case basis.

Due to the need for an expanded facility, Sherri believed it
was God’s timing for her and Spirit Church to raise the funds to construct a
brand new facility in the most impoverished part of their city. This new
facility offers a state-of-the-art kitchen, warehouse, offices, and a space
specifically designed as their Food for Kids area.

Smith says that she feels so blessed to be able to be the
hands and feet of Jesus in her community. “It is incredible to look back and
see what God has done,” she says, “but I also know that when God does something
like this, when He provides for His own, we shouldn’t be surprised.”

Wootton states that the love of Jesus is always present at
AGAPE and, although he moved to Oklahoma City in 2021 to become the district
superintendent, he makes an effort to visit the ministry whenever he is in that
part of the state. “I even celebrated my 50th birthday there because
it is a place just filled with Jesus,” he says.

Sherri has been married to her husband Mike for almost 37
years with 3 grown children and 4 grandchildren and remains an active member of
Spirit Church in Bartlesville.