Camden First United Methodist Church: Nourishing a Rural Community

Rev. Adam Kelchner, who has led the congregation for four years, paints a clear picture of the need. “About one in five people here are food insecure,” he says. “We see older adults on fixed incomes, grandparents raising grandkids, and families just scraping by month to month.” While the church’s 130 to 140 members are largely middle- and upper-middle-class professionals, Rev. Kelchner notes, “Even though most of our members are doing well, we feel a calling to serve the broader community—especially those who are struggling.”

The church’s food ministry is woven into its DNA. For more than two decades, Camden First has provided hot meals, mobile food pantries, and emergency food boxes. Every Thursday, the church hosts Christ Café, serving a hot meal to roughly 100 community members. “It’s not just our church,” Rev. Kelchner explains. “Local organizations take turns preparing and serving—high school teams, rotary clubs, even bank staff. It’s a wide swath of the community coming together.”

Additionally, Camden First partners with the nearby Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee. The satellite warehouse in Camden allows the church to host mobile food pantries, delivering perishable and non-perishable goods to hundreds of households in a single morning. Rev. Kelchner recalls the first time he witnessed the scale: “I was worried about signups, worried we wouldn’t have enough volunteers. But people show up. Every single time. We’ve never been short-handed.”

Volunteer engagement extends beyond church walls. Many senior adults, active and independent, now serve through the food ministry and the church’s thrift shop. “We realized the thrift shop volunteers could act as ambassadors for food ministry,” Rev. Kelchner says. “When someone comes in needing clothes, they can also connect them to our food programs.” The thrift shop, open twice weekly, provides high-quality clothing for families in need, including survivors of domestic abuse or disaster.

Before receiving the ENCORE Ministry Foundation Food Security Grant, one challenge was stocking emergency food boxes for families facing sudden hardship. “We’d get calls multiple times a week—people in crisis needing food immediately,” Rev. Kelchner says. The grant provided resources to respond quickly, expanding the church’s capacity to meet urgent needs. “It gave us a little more running room for emergency food boxes and created engagement opportunities for retirees in the middle of the week. The grant made the logistics of restocking manageable, and tomorrow we’re preparing a shipment twice as large—all thanks to ENCORE.”

The impact on the community is tangible. Rev. Kelchner highlights three consistent themes: neighbors looking out for neighbors, multigenerational households facing food insecurity, and older adults on fixed incomes. “If we weren’t providing these resources, some seniors might not make it month to month,” he says. “It’s life-changing. And the attitude with which people receive these resources is remarkable—they come ready to give back.”

Looking ahead, Rev. Kelchner sees a long-term vision supported by ENCORE Ministry Foundation. “I imagined a year where the number of food-insecure households could decrease because of our impact. That hasn’t changed much yet, but every year we’re moving tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of food into the community. And if another church is considering this work, my advice is simple: give yourself away. Resources always come back in some form. We’ve never come up short.”

Camden First United Methodist Church embodies the principle that food ministry is more than sustenance—it’s about relationships, dignity, and hope. Volunteers, church members, and community partners work side by side, creating a network that stretches across the county and touches countless lives.