It takes a village: Local churches team up to feed Sumter High football program

Any parent of a high school football player knows one simple fact: It's not cheap to keep a young athlete fed. That's why Sumter High head coach Drew Marlowe has teamed up with four local churches to make sure that his athletes are fed every weeknight as they go through a grueling football season.

"We started doing this when I was in Florence after my second year. I realized the needs of a lot of our kids. Unfortunately, not everyone gets to go home and eat supper, especially with how tough it is economically right now," Marlowe said. "In Florence, we started with once a week, then we found some more people and did it twice a week, then three times a week, and it turned into being able to feed a varsity football team six days a week. Right now, we're feeding our football team five days a week. I just reached out to some people I knew, and their answer was yes almost immediately.

"We're just very blessed to have the support of so many different churches who are willing to come every single week, give up their time and invest in our kids by feeding them supper."

The four churches work together in a rotation. Grace Baptist handles meals every Monday, while First Baptist feeds the team on Tuesday. Christ Community Church comes in on Wednesday, and Alice Drive Baptist handles the game day meal on Friday. On Thursday, the players receive a meal courtesy of the SHS booster club.

For each of the churches involved, this has been a special way to connect with members of their community and show the Gamecocks that they have the support of Sumter behind them.

"It's been an opportunity for us to communicate through food, which is an awesome communication and fellowship medium, that the local church is here for you as a member of our community," said Caleb Dubose, the associate pastor at Grace Baptist. "Hopefully it inspires them to turn around and do similar things and to feel some community support in a way that is really tangible."

Asa Dinkins, the high school ministry director at First Baptist, added, "It's crucial for them to see that there are people in Sumter who might not know them by name but care about who they are and care about them as a person, so I think that's super, super special."

Perhaps the most critical portion of this mission is the fact that four churches are uniting under one common goal: making sure the Sumter High football team is fed and hears the Word of God in the process. While some people may see the different names on their buildings, these churches are not high school football programs. There is no rivalry when it comes to giving back to their community.

"That's one of the biggest wins. We're all on Team Jesus," said Corey Watson, senior pastor at Alice Drive Baptist. "If you're a like-minded church, if you're a church right down the road or wherever in Sumter or beyond, if you're Team Jesus, we're on your team. I'm constantly telling our people here, when the church down the road wins, we win for the Kingdom. That's why I'm able to go into these conversations with coaches and say you're not going to see us roll in with bright, neon Alice Drive shirts on because it's not about Alice Drive. If some players and coaches end up walking through our doors on a Sunday morning, praise God, but if they go to the church down the road and Jesus saves them and changes their lives, we're just as excited."

Watson and his team at Alice Drive also don't want to play favorites. When he started in Sumter, he made the same offer to the programs at Crestwood and Lakewood.

"We've done the same with Crestwood and Lakewood, as well. I've had the same conversation with those coaches, which is, 'We're here, we want to be your biggest fan, we want to be an asset, however that needs to look, whether it's food or I have a leadership program I do, whatever it may be.'

"We just want to add value to a program, whether we operate in the background and no one knows our name, that's completely fine for us, because we're not in it for Alice Drive's name. That's what I told Drew when he came in; that's what I told Crestwood and Lakewood's coaches."

Caleb Yoder, the teaching and missions pastor at Christ Community Church, also uses this weekly mission as a chance to show that these churches are about doing good within their community, not just talking about it on Sundays.

"We want to share the good news of Jesus to everybody, and that's kind of our heart, but talking about things and actually being involved and invested in being able to provide things for people, I think that's where the gap is bridged between people believing what you say by seeing what you do," he said. "I think we have a really cool opportunity for the community to see and the guys on the team to see that these churches are not just churches that speak about people doing stuff; we're out here doing it, too. I think all of the churches involved want to be invested in the community, not just with what we do on a Sunday morning, but what we're doing during the week in the way that we care for people other than when we're gathered in our own churches. That part has been really neat."

Of course, bringing food to feed a team the size of Sumter High is no simple feat. Dinkins put together a spreadsheet so that every member of the church who wants to participate in feeding the Gamecocks can find a day that works for them and they can provide as much assistance as they can.

"I've got about 15 slots, and I started advertising it to our church, especially the men in the church. I think it's easy for a lot of moms to step up and bake something, but it's been really cool to see our men, our fathers and our grandfathers step up into this role," Dinkins said. "I advertised that if you want a week or you just want to help or if you can only do dessert, whatever it is, here's the signup sheet, leave your name and phone number, the meal that you want to provide or help provide and if you're willing to give that five-minute testimony right before they eat. That sheet has filled out really, really quickly."

Dubose sees the weekly ritual as an additional way for his congregation at Grace Baptist to bond, while also helping feed a local program full of hungry football players.

"It usually involves people at the church or at their own homes essentially tailgating for the practice, which of course involves some shopping and some time behind a grill or whatever the meal is that day," Dubose said. "But it's been a time of fellowship for members of our church. You have some people who cook together now that maybe don't sit close to each other in the sanctuary all of the time. Some folks bring desserts, and it's a reflection of their own talents and them being able to bring them to the table. My wife is essentially a professional baker and I can't bake, but I can grill. It's that kind of partnership idea on a larger scale.

"But it's a significant undertaking, which is one of the reasons that when I took it to the deacons I said this isn't something we can flop on, it's 80-something players and we wanted some available for coaches or assistants or whoever, so we had to make sure we were able to perform, just like the players are able to perform. It's work, but it's a labor of love for our congregation, and I know everyone who has done it has already asked what other weeks we have open because they're ready to do it again."

Marlowe also wants these daily meals to be an important lesson for his team. He wants them to see the number of people in the Sumter community who are willing to give their time and resources to them so that, in turn, the Gamecocks know the importance of giving back to the community they've been raised within.

"I think helping them know and understand that there are people behind them, there are people who support them," Marlowe said. "Each one of them also has a prayer partner. We've paired someone up with every member of our team, they give them little gift bags, write them letters, all of those sorts of things. I think our players just really feeling loved by our community and feeling like there are people here who want to see them grow and want to see them succeed, and not just on the football field, but helping them in life. Doing life together is something that was really important for me coming back here, and it was something I knew I wanted to get going."

These community leaders also see the importance of Sumter High bringing a local coach back home, especially one who sees the value in boosting all of Sumter to its greatest potential.

"He knows that his role as a coach is more than just as a coach; it's like a teacher role," Dubose said. "He's invested in the lives of these young people; he has them in his home. It's a family atmosphere, which reflects his own beautiful family and his church family. It's a layered approach and a layered opportunity to serve to show layers of love and support to the people under his leadership right now."

Yoder added, "I would never speak for him, but I think one of the things that he's showing is that he cares about winning football games and coaching football, but beyond that he cares about raising young men into men that understand the value of community, understand the value of church community partnership. And I really do believe that they have an understanding of who Jesus is and they see that in things like this, where we're able to go out and take care of a need for you."

Marlowe plans to continue to keep his team invested in the community around them because they're the future of Sumter.

"Sumter is a special place to me, it's important to me. This is why I wanted to come back, because I wanted to give to our kids and help them help Sumter grow and become better," said the Gamecock head coach. "This is just the beginning of the things we want to do. In the spring, we want to get involved with businesses and create micro-internships for our kids. We want our kids to be a part of the community, and we want our community to be a part of our football program and our kids' lives."