LEXINGTON, N.C. — Nine hundred people in Davidson County now need a new place to get food.
The Lexington Fire Department said Jesus Comes First Ministries caught fire Saturday during the Lexington Barbeque Festival.
A large portion of smoke was visible during the fire, and a second alarm went off.
The first crew arrived and saw smoke coming from the rear of the building and immediately began to work on putting the fire out.
Additional crews checked inside the building for victims and if the fire had extended to other parts of the building. Firefighters determined that the fire was contained in the back of the church, and nobody was inside the building.
The church's food pantry was destroyed during the fire.
A service JCF Ministries provided for more than a decade has to be scaled back greatly.
Kelly Ling returned to her Lexington church to see what it would take to get their pantry back up and running.
"We're going to have to work on the roof too," Ling said.
The door was blown off, parts of the foundation were charred and crates that held food were melted. The pantry has smoke, water, and electrical damage inside.
The daughter of the church's pastor Crissty Little said the pantry feeds hundreds of Davidson County families monthly.
"It's devastating to know that as much as we've done for the community to know that we're not going to be able to do that right now," Little said.
Ling runs the church's food pantry which can no longer operate.
"We had hams, chickens, ribs you name it we had it," Ling said. "It impacts me too, I do the pantry it's one thing I love doing and we're not going to be able to see their faces. A lot of them come and say we don't have food to last us such and such time."
JCF Ministries is one of the very few organizations that provide food for families in need.
They've started a GofundMe in hopes of being able to continue to serve the community.
"There's not a lot of places you can go to to get food that's why I'm really concerned that we can't serve as much as we normally do on a weekly basis but at least we'll try," Little said.
Standing on faith helped.
When North Lexington Baptist Church heard JCF Ministries experienced a fire they allowed them to store their frozen food at their church.
A group of volunteers gathered on Sunday to move out what they could.
"It was amazing for them to hold it because we took their space it blesses our heart to know they're willing to help us." Little said.
Without a place to welcome families, Little brought crates of items and set up outside on Monday since the church has no electricity.
With no power, the small congregation will also have to find a new place to worship.
The church believes the fire started outside but the fire marshal is still looking into how it started.
The building sustained substantial smoke and water damage and is currently unhabitable. There were no injuries to fire personnel.
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