First Fruit Ministries

As first a resident in the Transitional Housing Program, then as a participant in the Urban Ministry Program I spent almost 10 years volunteering in the offices at First Fruit Ministries, working to help the homeless people the Ministry serves.
I spent most of my time in the office working in the Transitional Housing Program and one of the brightest ways that First Fruit shines is that it welcomes people without judgement, with love for who and what they are, wherever that happens to be, at any given moment. Nor did any staff ever push their own beliefs on people although it is clearly a Christian-driven ministry. The example was always evident through love, acceptance, and welcome, and was for me, and others I watched over those years, the key to finding a path back to a belief system I had long ago abandoned but would have run from if it had been pushed on me.
Over those years I witnessed people who because of what was freely given, because of the emotional and practical support consistently offered, turn their lives completely around. It is the blessing of my life that even after 7 years away I am in touch with several former residents and get to continue to watch people coming from great trauma which resulted in addiction, mental and emotional illness change into a person who found their way to a healthy, joyful, and purposeful life. They, and those I run into occasionally on the bus, even after all these years, still credit those changes to the love, support and foundation received at First Fruit Ministry.
The tenets of treating everyone with respect, of making sure they walked with dignity as part of the Ministry family, stretched through all the programs at the Ministry whether it was an encounter of a few minutes in the line at the food pantry or giving fresh clean towels to someone who was taking their first shower after days of living in a tent. Those tenets are an offering to the homeless the Ministry serves that, as I was often told, was not usually part of their experience at other agencies. Making a difference in how someone felt about themselves was, in my opinion, the greatest gift offered to the people the Ministry served and was the most important thing that laid the foundation for a better life.
First Fruit Ministry programs are worthy of support, whether it’s financial or time, because they work, because they make a real difference for the better in people’s lives, because they reach the people who need the most help yet are the most neglected among us, because helping someone else is a gift to yourself.

As I look back over the last 2 years, I am thankful that God lead my wife Karen and I to Wilmington NC and more specifically to the First Fruit Ministries Campus.
At First Fruit Ministries we where giving the opportunity to serve through the ministry of helps. Karen and I are doing what we truly desire in our heart to do, and here at First Fruit we get to do it by giving away free food and love to several hundred people each week.
Serving in the ministry of helps in this manner really makes us come alive.
As our relationship with Jesus grows, we find that it is most important that we serve in right relationship with him, which allows us to feel fulfilled each and every day.

First Fruit Ministries is serving up delicious food and great atmosphere thru there, street feed and food pantry program's.

Ronald J Pinney

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I have been associated with First fruit Ministries since January. i have seen first hand their love for people. Their hearts are to serve the people of the community and those in need through meeting their immediate need- putting food in their pantries and in their stomachs. This applies to those they serve through the Food Pantry and those they feed who are homeless on the street. They strive to be people of integrity and be responsible with the resources they have been given. After volunteering in the Food Pantry I have also had the opportunity to work on the transitional housing end of things. I have seen women who are at places in their lives where they are stuck and are lost come into a sense of purpose and start to pursue a career or college degree. Many of those who are willing to work through the root causes of the issues in their lives and work hard to learn the skills they need to succeed, emerge from the program victorious with a fresh start and perspective. I would recommend First Fruit to anyone who would like to volunteer in a good environment with people who are friendly and to people who like to feel that they are truly giving back to the community.

I was introduced to First Fruit Ministries over 5 years ago. I had worked with typical "rescue mission" organizations before and this is what I was expecting the first time I visited First Fruit Ministries. Immediately after I set foot the campus I could tell that this was different than anything I had experienced before: It was clean, well lit, well staffed and full of happy positive people! As my relationship with First Fruit developed from a volunteer, to a donor and finally to a board member I have become increasingly impressed with the service that they provide with their minimal budget. The bottom line is that they are amazingly effective at taking people off of the street and transforming their lives so that they can re-enter society as helpful and productive members. Their success rate is overwhelmingly higher than our state's average and I attribute this to the love of God that is shown to each and every client who walks through the door.