Profile of Reverend Kenneth G.

Jones

Calling to
Ministry
A look at the workings behind the opening
of Macon Countys first food pantry.

Alethia Russell

God is grace, God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Bow our heads, we are fed.
Thank you Lord for daily bread. Amen. While the biggest food campaigns normally take place
around October, focusing on feeding the hungry during the holiday season, it is easily
overlooked that food insecurity is a yearlong issue. There are communities that need year round
assistance, and do not have the means to secure that assistance within their own county or city.
Food insecurity is not knowing when one can have their next meal, or an inability to consistently
access nutritious food or adequate food to live a healthy lifestyle (feedingamerica.org).
According to the Alabama Possible: Alabama Poverty Project, Macon County is one of
the nations highest food insecure and highest food cost counties. More than 50 percent of
families are single parent homes living below the poverty level. There is strength in numbers.
Many of us have heard this on numerous occasions. But for some, one is the only number they
can rely on. In the 2010 Census, the April report revealed that nationwide about 1 of households
in America are headed by single females 30 percent of which are African Americans
(nationaljournal.com). Feeding America reports that Alabama comes in 5th place in the top ten
states with higher food insecurity rates with a population that is 17.9 percent food insecure.
A city of both infamous and noteworthy accomplishments, Tuskegee, Ala. is no stranger
to hardship or poverty, but is just as familiar with outreach and uplift from within its own ranks
in a predominantly African American community nestled in the heart of Macon County. Just 25
years ago, it is described by Reverend Kenneth G. Jones as a community in transition, when he
arrived one week after the citys Walmart closed. Jones, a member of the Macon County
Ministers Council and board member of the Food Bank of East Alabama, mentioned a shift in
the area from a thriving, healthy, small town, with a strong middle class to watching the
poverty rate skyrocket with the closing of bigger businesses that employed majority of the

community such as Victoryland. Now large, mostly abandoned houses line the bumpy streets.
Century old structures characterize the small downtown area. The air seems to breathe history
against everything it touches.
Among others, Jones chose to stay in the community because of its heritage and rich
historical background. Tuskegee, Ala. was on the frontlines in the era of desegregating schools
and made headlines when Booker T. Washington founded the great institution that is now
Tuskegee University.
The story is a unique story about the work of Booker Washington and George
Washington Carver, and the students of the early years of Tuskegee Institute. It was a compelling
story that had to be told not only for African Americans, but for people of all color, Jones said.
When you consider the fact that Booker Washington created and grew a great institution of
higher education at a time when Black men were being lynched for sport in the state of Alabama,
it was compelling and that initially drew me to the community, said Jones.
However, with the loss of so many employers over time, more people left to find jobs.
Weve seen a significant amount of job losses over the years. Subsequently there have
been people to move away from the community, Jones said.
Chairman of the Macon County Commission, Louis Maxwell remembered, Then and
now, the people were employed more. We had more jobs because it was flourishing. There were
more opportunities for jobs, the university was thriving, but the VA hospital was declining. He
too chose to stay in the community even though he saw the decline in jobs.
It really was the people that made me stay here. Im committed to the people of this
community, he reiterated.

Fewer mobile and able hands on deck to provide for the community weakened the
neighborhood to an extent. Community leaders and citizens of all ages recognized a problem and
unified to work towards making things better. Not only were they facing an unemployment issue,
there was also the issue of underemployment. Citizens of Macon County did not have adequate
resources to make the living needed to eliminate food insecurity.
The Macon County Ministers Council, in partnership with many other organizations,
has progressively strived for the past few years toward the opening of their very first food pantry.
Under their wings, resources were pulled with entities such as the Tuskegee Housing Authority,
the Beta Xi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the Food Bank of East
Alabama, and Tuskegee Universitys Enactus to name a few. The Councils purpose is to give the
many churches of Macon County opportunities to cooperate in ministries. There are many
churches in the area with small congregations that do not have the man power within their own
entities to do these larger types of ministries. The Macon County Ministers council serves to
unite these congregations to be able to take advantage of larger ministry opportunities. Under
their oversight, the county now has its first food pantry available to all who may need it.
Tyler Hunter, president of Tuskegee Universitys branch of Enactus, came into Tuskegee
three years ago. After working alongside others advising and consulting in preparation for the
startup of the food pantry Hunter says, What I see now that I didnt see back then is a joint
effort between the university and the community to make things better. Hunter and other
Tuskegee University students volunteer with the pantry on distribution days and regular upkeep
of the pantry. Hunter says he hopes to see the distributions occur more often, evolving from a
monthly basis to a weekly basis, and hopes the community will give to the pantry to help keep it
open.

Present at the ribbon cutting, Barbara Beck, Agency Coordinator for the Food Bank of
East Alabama, recalled, It takes a village to be able to provide for a village. Whats great about
this program is that the churches got together and worked together to be able to provide for the
community, and its open for other churches to be a part of it. You simply can do more when you
join resources.
A general consensus among the workers and hands behind the food bank was the
importance of resourcefulness. Over the course of the years it took to get the food bank running
it was resourcefulness that made it all possible. From the donation of the building to the labor in
cleaning the building up, hands from multiple people in different organizations, commissions,
and councils have all helped bring forth this momentous occasion. A total of 15 organizations
joined forces to be able to make this happen.
So often folks wanna talk about what we dont have and dont look at what we do have,
Jones said. The food pantry was an excellent opportunity for us to look at what we did have and
bring this together.
Other participants such as Macon County Commissioner Louis Maxwell also celebrated
the mile marking ribbon cutting.
Im extremely excited because I had a chance to be involved in this when the vision first
came forward. And for several years weve been working on this. I come in contact with several
families who are wondering where theyre going to get their next food meal from, Maxwell
said.
The ribbon cutting for the food pantry featured small demonstrations and words of
encouragement from partners and participators alike. The staff at the pantry said it hopes to hold
small nutrition lessons for parents in the community to teach the importance of feeding children

the right things. They also encourage parents and beneficiaries of the food banks services to be
responsible with their food assistance, and show them how to make do with what they do have.
This is one small step for Tuskegee, Ala., the giant leaps are yet to come. Congratulations
Tuskegee.

Source Sheet:
Tyler Hunter: 205-441-3704
Reverend Kenneth Jones: 334-332-0503
Profile of Reverend Kenneth G. Jones

Calling to Ministry
Barbara Beck: *(334) 821-9006 (Food Bank of East Alabama)
Chairman of Macon County Commission Louis Maxwell

Alethia Russell

Not all answer the call when a phone rings. It could be a simple telemarketer, your mom,
your boss, or God himself calling you to move. But, Reverend Kenneth G. Jones did eventually.
Reverend Kenneth G. Jones is Pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Tuskegee, Ala,. and a
board member of the Food Bank of East Alabama. Jones said he believes he knew that ministry
was his calling around the age of 17. However he did not answer the call.
I had a bunch of excuses why I couldnt do it, Jones said. It was more of an it chose
me not I chose it, Jones recalled. I had teachers and adults say it was probably not a good
profession to go into. My mother knew it. Of course she did not push it. She realized it was a
decision I would have to make on my own, he said.
Jones resided in Washington D. C. majority of his life, and opted to remain there while
pursuing his Bachelors degree at Howard University. Jones attended Howard University starting
off in engineering and deciding that was not the major for him.
I switched to urban recreation management mainly because I liked dealing with people
and children. I didnt realize it was preparing me for my eventual calling, Jones said. Basically,
it was an opportunity to help people find events and activities to create a better quality of living.
Jones said he believed creating a better quality of living was always his niche, even
before he accepted his call to minister. He travelled to different work sites including the Gateway
Arch and the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area before he finally landed in
Tuskegee, Ala. at the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site. It was here that he decided to
take a leave of absence to pursue ministering full time. He studied and received his masters in
Biblical Studies from Ambridge University, at the time known as Southern Christian University.

After accepting his call to minister, Jones continued to work to improve the quality of life
for others as he had done before. Jones nostalgically reminisced about Thanksgiving as a young
child with his mother in D.C.
Every Thanksgiving as a boy my mom would work with her church to make
Thanksgiving baskets to give to people throughout the D.C. community. I knew as a child that
come Thanksgiving time, I would be delivering Thanksgiving baskets. It was a regular
occurrence. Even when I started driving and my mom didnt, I still hauled her around to deliver
those baskets, Jones said chuckling. Its been a part of my life to help those that are in need.
Jones said he grew up in a poorer part of the D.C. area, but was fortunate enough to not
know the effects of food insecurity first hand. Even though he was never food insecure he says
he was always aware that there were people who were. So when he arrived in the rural area that
is Tuskegee, Ala., it was only natural for Jones to recognize a problem and move to fix the issue
plaguing the community.
I was blessed in that regard. We never went through a period of unemployment. My
father was a postal employee, and we never had a lot of money but we never lacked, Jones said.
I grew up in an era where we didnt go to McDonalds or fast food restaurants for dinner; we
had staples. We knew there would be fish on Fridays, or beans on Saturday, or fried chicken on
Monday, he recalled.
Jones was nominated to serve on the board for the Food Bank of East Alabama, and upon
acceptance of his position he did as he always has done. Serve others.
If youre blessed you dont just sit back and talk about how blessed you are, you have an
obligation to help others, Jones said.

It has been a delightful service. I would say that I probably got more out of it than I
brought to the table. Im thankful to sit at the table with such a group of people concerned with
the issue of hunger, Jones said.
Jones was recently able to celebrate a major milestone in his ministry with the opening of
the food pantry in Macon County. He gives the credit to resourcefulness saying, In Tuskegee we
just want to stop focusing on what we dont have, and start focusing on the resources we do have
and use them as effectively and efficiently as possible. Its just like what God told Moses when
he was facing the Red Sea. Moses didnt know what to do, and he said well look whats in your
hand and Moses raised his staff.

Alethia Russell
Journalism 3220
September 17, 2013
Disabled Not Unable

It was before Christmas of 1989, a family was travelling on a highway near Memphis,
Tenn., to attend a holiday party. There was a 6-year-old girl in the back seat and her mother was
driving. That night a drunken driver ran a red light going 90 miles per hour and collided with
their vehicle. They never made it to that party.
Shannon Sparks was that 6-year-old girl, and she did not walk away from this accident. In
fact, Shannon was paralyzed from the waist down. Her mother did not make it. Every 90 seconds
someone is injured by a drunken driver. Every 53 minutes someone is also killed by a drunken
driver. Count to 90- that was Shannon.
At the time we only had waist seat belts, Sparks recalled. The impact caused my body
to go forward and snap my spine.
It has been more than 20 years now, and Sparks sits with roses pinned in her hair and
focus and refreshing optimism behind her rectangular eyeglass frames. She is now a student at
Auburn University studying computer sciences. For her, there is no blame, no bitterness,
everything is a blessing.
Sparks describes her life with, I think in a lot of ways its been a blessing because I have
a lot of opportunities to talk to people that other people may not be able to connect with as well
because I think that people are less intimidated by the fact that I am in a wheelchair, she said.
I think it makes me more approachable.
I think it was good that I was young because Ive lived like this my entire life, and Ive
spent my whole life adapting.
Some people live like, why did God do this to me, but Ive never really looked at it this
way. Ive seen it as an opportunity.

As if the trauma of the accident wasnt enough, during her childhood Sparks had to
endure a number of surgeries relating back to the accident, including a colostomy, a reverse
colostomy, spinal surgery and an ankle procedure.
I had a colostomy and a reverse colostomy, and they basically took out my intestines and
put them back in. It was a lot to go through as a child.
She had extended stays in the hospitals, where she took physical rehab to learn to
transfer from one chair to another and other skills needed to live with her disability. It was at this
time Sparks was isolated away from children her own age, where she says she did not fully
develop socializing skills. Surrounded by the old, the sick, or the dying, Sparks had no
interaction with kids.
I still am not normal in my communication patterns. Sparks admitted.
After studying psychology and communication alongside her regular studies, 24 years
later she sits before the world with her charming jewelry and vibrant skirts, childlike and eager to
be heard, but simultaneously hard to hear. Sparks said her biggest loss in the incident was her
ability to socialize.
Sparks said she was always taught that she can do anything she wanted, and firmly stuck
by and believed that. She moved to Tampa, Fl. to pursue a job in business. Over the years Sparks
gave back to her Tampa community in service with ministry to the homeless, Boys and Girls
Clubs, a Cradles and Crowns program, and participating in breast cancer walks. Sparks reflected
on her experience with the homeless becoming flustered in her face, and choking back tears.
I worked with a church that did ministries for the homeless in Lakeland, Fl. That was
probably the hardest thing Ive ever done in my life, she said.

Sparks even opened her home to some of the homeless in her ministries and helped them find a
job and get on their feet.
Sparks believes she has fully embraced and accepted her lifestyle and lives with the best
outcome in mind. Practice makes perfect, Sparks now talks to anybody willing to talk back to get
over her communication barrier. Over the years Sparks continues to work and minister with her
church homes to stay busy. Even though she faces some prejudices she only sees two options in
dealing with them.
I try personally to either ignore the comment or educate them, she said. A lot of
people dont know what Im capable of.

Source sheet:
Shannon Sparks: alicerabbit42@gmail.com