12/13/2020
IMPORTANT POST. PLEASE READ & SHARE.
After much thought, prayer, discussion, and discernment, Marya and I have decided that we will shut down Walking Tall Wilmington effective January 1, 2021. To be completely transparent, we found ourselves overwhelmed by having two non-profits, a new church plant, as well as a church appointment. In addition, we have felt strongly that God is telling us Walking Tall Wilmington has served its purpose. Since establishing the non-profit in 2017, we have learned many lessons, broken down multiple barriers for and with our community, raising awareness of the plights of those oppressed by chronic systemic poverty and victimized by biases, assumptions, stereotypes, and bigotry.
During our time with Walking Tall Wilmington, we have seen our community grow, relationships form, stories shared, and most importantly self-worth and dignity rediscovered. We have been grateful for the outpouring of love and support Walking Tall Wilmington has received since its inception. We are proud of the local, small business, church, civic organization, and artisan connections we have made in our communities. Every time we were at a point of concern or doubt, we were blessed with exactly what we needed at that time. Often, even overwhelmed and humbled by the level of generosity displayed whenever needs arose.
First, we’d like to proactively address the concerns of how this will affect our community. The services currently provided by Walking Tall Wilmington will be absorbed by our religious non-profit, The Feast Congregation. The weekday meal sharing events would be provided by Feast on Wheels. We will continue to share a meal with anyone who is hungry, without pre-entry stipulations and/or requirements. In other words, if you are hungry, we will be happy to share a meal with you. If you are thirsty, we will give you something to drink. In addition, our partner, St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, has stepped up to take on some of the burdens of both meal sharing for the Feast Gathering Congregation, and several meals during the week. Furthermore, they are collaborating with us to provide for other needs, including clothing, hygiene, and warmth, by keeping supplies in a centralized location where they can be easily accessed both during the week, and at our Saturday Feast Gathering each week. We are grateful for our service team from St. Paul’s, including Clarence, Melinda, Patsy, and Nick, who have tirelessly worked to support us and remove some of the burden of service from us. We will continue to offer The Annual Christmas and Thanksgiving Meals as well.
We're also excited about our new partnership with Trinity United Methodist Church to offer Emergency Shelters and our offering weekly showers through the Mobile Shower Trailer.
Second, your financial donations. For those of you who have donated this year or plan to donate during 2020, you will still be able to utilize the donation as a deduction on your taxes under Walking Tall Wilmington’s current non-profit. All remaining Walking Tall Wilmington funds will be utilized to meet the needs of our community. In 2021, we encourage you to consider making your donation instead to the Feast on Wheels, or the Feast Gathering Congregation. In conjunction, these organizations will still work on the premise of radical abundancy and hospitality, language, and justice. With our religious component we will continue to create a safe place for our community to explore their faith and pursue opportunities for spiritual development, while providing a Feast for the body through a physical meal, and a Feast for the soul by sharing communion each week. While 2020 has been trying, impacting almost everything we do, it has also provided opportunities for growth within our volunteers and leadership team, stretched our community, required outside-of-the-box thinking to remain connected with our community, and created opportunities to establish new resources and partnerships for our community.
From here on forward all donations will be made to The Feast Gathering.
In closing, Marya, and I would like to thank each and every one of you for all your love, encouragement, physical and financial support over the past almost 4 years with Walking Tall Wilmington. It has been a challenging yet rewarding adventure and we are grateful for all the lessons learned along the way. We look forward to the next chapter of our lives as 2021 will bring continued development of the Feast Gathering Congregation, the launch of another Feast Congregation in Snead’s Ferry, a definitive plan to manage this pandemic and establish our new baseline of “normalcy.” We look forward to continued growth in our leadership teams for Wilmington and Snead’s Ferry. However, most of all, we look forward to continuing to nurture and build existing and new relationships with anyone in need.
This is not the end....it's just the beginning.
Sincerely,
Randy Evans, Founder
Marya Evans, Co-Creator
