FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2002
SC cornmeal processor and TN corn grower rise to the cause
COLUMBIA, SC–Forty thousand pounds of cornmeal with a milled value of $7,500 is being donated by a Tennessee corn grower and a South Carolina processor to assist orphans in Romania. The cornmeal, grown by Dewey Gilliam of South Pittsburg, Tennessee, donated through the Kimball Baptist Church Fellowship Sunday School Class, and milled by Allen Brothers Milling Company in Columbia, SC, will be distributed to the orphans through Feed the Hungry. A container truck is scheduled to load the cornmeal from the Allen Brothers plant location (Adluh), 804 Gervais Street in Columbia at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, April 8, 2002.
Les Tindal, Commissioner of Agriculture, and Bob Coble, Mayor of Columbia, and other dignitaries are scheduled to be on hand to bid the cornmeal farewell and bon voyage on its 5,400-mile trip. Commissioner Tindal said, "This is a great way to help those who are less fortunate than us. When you can’t even get cornmeal, it’s a desperate situation. We often take for granted the fact that we have the most abundant---and affordable---food supply in the world!"
Shelton Lewis of Johnson City, Tennessee, organizer of the mission, has been working with a Christian organization to build an orphanage in Romania. The new orphanage is to be called Speranta Petru Altii which is Romanian for "Hope for Others."
For those who wish to assist in the effort, the fastest and most effective way to help the orphans is through cash donations directly to Matthews House Orphanage. For more information about the orphanage, log on to www.matthewshouse.org. To contribute, contact Delbert and Martha Gillette, 122 Gillette Rd., Jonesborough, TN, 37659, or email them at ministries@matthewshouse.org.
For more information about the cornmeal shipment, call Jack Edgerton, President of Allen Brothers Milling Company at 803-779-2460.