A local woman is planning to have a luncheon and gathering in a church gymnasium off Falls Road later this summer, with the goal being for about 200 seniors to be fed in a celebratory setting.
Evangeline Bullock said in an interview Sunday that sometimes the elderly are a bit overlooked.
“So, I want to bring them together in an atmosphere of fellowship and worship and connection where they feel that they are important,” Bullock said.
The luncheon and gathering is set for noon-3 p.m. Aug. 15 in the gym at Abundant Life Ministries in the 700 block of Falls, which is south of the Rocky Mount Mills commercial and residential development.
Bullock worked three decades as a saleswoman for what was the Montgomery Ward department store in what was Tarrytown Mall off North Wesleyan Boulevard — and she worked the night of the flooding that occurred during the effects of Hurricane Floyd in 1999.
She said that she started helping people and different organizations with delivering food and toiletries.
Bullock later launched a television ministry that eventually was named “Shine A Little Light.” The ministry is aired on television station WHIG.
Bullock also said that for the past six to seven years she has been leading a faith-based effort to provide cooked food to be taken every other month to the elderly in the Twin Counties, and that the food ministry has enlisted the help of the sheriff’s offices in Edgecombe and Nash counties.
Restaurants are helping provide food and that food is taken to a Hispanic church and from there the food is distributed, Bullock said.
Bullock said 536 meals were served as part of the ministry in 2022 and 2023.
“And I do this because a lot of elderly people are not cooking like they are used to eating,” she said. “They don’t stand over the stove now and cook.”
Bullock’s daughter, Yameka, who works at the back end of planning for the food distribution effort, spoke Sunday about the seniors they serve being in isolation.
“So that can give them a sense of family and connection and friendship and loyalty to know that the community has not forgotten them,” Yameka Bullock said of the food distribution effort.
Overall, she said, “It’s always a joy to do things for others, especially to do things for someone that can’t do for themselves.”
Yameka Bullock is an assistant principal at Bulluck Elementary School in Edgecombe County.
The mother and daughter are not members of Abundant Life Ministries, but the Rev. Keith Moore, who is pastor of the church, said Sunday that Evangeline Bullock approached him a couple of months ago about bringing the elderly together in one place for the luncheon and gathering.
Additionally, Moore said that for about the past 18 years Abundant Life Ministries has from 8 a.m.-10 a.m. every second Saturday been providing food to numerous people who drive up in the church’s parking lot.
Moore said that the food mainly comes via a food bank in Greenville but that the food also comes via more sources.
As for what is being planned for Aug. 15 in the church gym, Moore said of Bullock, “She gave me the vision. I said: Let me support it.”
Word of Bullock’s effort to have a mass luncheon for the elderly came up amid the public input phase of the June 10 City Council regular meeting.
Bullock called on the seven-member panel to help her get the word out about needed supplies, needed food and eating utensils.
Bullock also asked whether Tar River Transit could be available to help get the seniors to Abundant Life Ministries.
Bullock also said that she would be sending letters to a variety of churches to see whether they could supply vans to bring seniors from their churches.
“I love older people — and they love ministry,” she said.
“And I feel that they are being neglected in a way because nobody’s really taking the time up for old people. But we’re losing a lot of wisdom — and we’re not taking care of these elderly people,” she said.
She said that she would love to have all the council members attend the Aug. 15 luncheon and gathering, engage in fellowship with the attendees and find out what is going on in the attendees’ respective neighborhoods.
“A lot of the people in the community don’t know who you are,” she told the panel.
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