By Liz Beavers
lbeavers@newstribune.info
tribune managing editor

FORT ASHBY — “If you eat, you qualify.”
That is the motto of Angel Food Ministries, a national not-for-profit non-denominational organization through which anyone can purchase food boxes for a fraction of what the same items would cost at the grocery store.
Although the program was established in 1994 as a way of providing relief for struggling families in the Monroe, Ga., area, Angel Food Ministries today serves hundreds of thousands of people regardless of their financial situation.
Simply put, “if you eat, you qualify,” according to Glenna Heavener, who is helping to coordinator the program locally through Calvary Assembly of God Church in Fort Ashby.
“The economy has gotten so bad, we just felt we wanted to help people,” she explained.
In the program, people may purchase a box of nutritionally balanced food – ranging from meats and vegetables to eggs and shelf-stable milk — for a cost of $30.
“It’s enough to feed one person for 30 days, or a family of four for a week,” Heavener said.
November’s box, for example, includes 1.5 lbs of New York strip steak, 3 lbs.of split chicken breasts, 2 lbs. of baby back pork ribs, 2lbs. of chicken chunks, a 28 oz. package of jumbo charbroiled beef patties with gravy,  1 lb. each of smoked sausage, ground turkey, green beans, and diced sweet potatoes, 10 oz. of peanut butter, 15 oz. of cranberry sauce, 7 oz. of beef-flavored rice and vermicelli, 20 oz. of shoestring fries, 32 oz. of 2 percent reduced-fat shelf-stable milk, 6 oz. package of pancake mix, one dozen eggs and a dessert.
Although the contents of the boxes vary from month to month, “they all come with the milk and eggs,” Heavener said.
Once a person purchases one of the regular boxes, he or she may also purchase any number of special boxes, including a “grill box,” “meat combo,” and “fresh fruit and veggie box.”
A “Senior” or “Convenience” box is also available every month, and includes ten fully cooked heat-and-serve meals for $28.
November also has a Thanksgiving box to offer, which includes a 7 lb. Perdue roasting hen, 2 lbs packages of heat-and-serve mashed potatoes, corn, and reen beans, a 17 oz. package of cornbread stuffing, 4.5 oz. brown gravy mix, 15 oz. cranberry sauce, eight dinner rolls and a dessert.
The Thanksgiving box is selling for $30.
“It’s everything you would need for a regular Thanksgiving dinner,” Heavener said.
The estimated retail value of each box ranges from $45 to $75, and the food is donated to the program from some of the nation’s top food producers, including General Mills, Con Agra Foods, Birdseye, Pilgrim’s Pride, Encor Foods, Tyson, and Perdue.
Calvary Assembly has been participating in the Angel Food program since September and it has been growing in leaps and bounds since then.
“We started with 60 boxes and we’re up to 101,” Heavener said.
“We look at these as not a ‘hand out,’ but a ‘hand up.”
Calvary Assembly will be accepting orders for November on Nov. 4-6 and the food is scheduled to be distributed on Nov. 22.
Other Angel Food hosts sites in the area include First Assembly of God in Westernport, Central United Methodist, Lighthouse COG Prophesy and Refuge House in Cumberland, and God’s Art of Safety in Frostburg.
For more information on Angel Food Ministries, visit the website www.AngelFoodMinistries.com.