I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
Matthew 25:35
We’re hiring an Executive Director
Table of Grace is entering a pivotal season of growth and transformation. We are incredibly grateful to Emily Altman for leading us to this point as Executive Director. Honoring her desire to spend more focus on family and wellness, we find it’s time to embark on a search for an Executive Director (ED).
The ED will serve as our chief leader, strategist, and ambassador. The ED will be responsible for shaping and executing a vision for growth—both operationally and financially—by strengthening community partnerships, building a capable and inspired team, and establishing a sustainable model for the future. This role is ideal for a visionary, hands-on leader who thrives in working with a team, building from a blank slate, developing people, and creating long-term organizational capacity. This position works closely with the Board of Directors to guide Table of Grace into its next chapter. The job description for the position can be found here. Interested parties should send their resume and cover letter to president@togpantry.org by December 5th. Please spread the word and help us find strong applicants.
In the spirit of togetherness, Table of Grace works to end food insecurity and promote community in West Alabama.
Table of Grace is a client-choice food pantry where our food is displayed much like in a market and our neighbors select from available inventory. Choices vary month to month depending on food availability.
Our Location
201 Hargrove Road,
Tuscaloosa AL 35401
Phone: 205-469-7811
Email: togpantry@gmail.com
Get Food from Us
The Table of Grace pantry market is open several days a week to meet the varying needs of our neighbors.
Tuesday 12pm-6pm
Thursday 12pm-2pm
Friday 12pm-2pm
Come in to the market and pick your food items from our client choice shelves. Income qualified households may choose food once per month. Please bring your ID for each visit.
Volunteer with us
We believe that when we work together as a community to meet the basic needs people have, something beautiful takes place.
We need a steady array of volunteers to make this mission possible. Our food pantry has long worked with community volunteers who are not a part of the church. All are welcome.
Please join us on this journey! We need volunteers like you to:
- Assist neighbors as they shop the pantry & choose their items
- Help keep our pantry market shelves stocked
- Assist with registering new neighbors, greet neighbors, and assist them with groceries to their car
For more information or if you are a group who wants to volunteer, contact us at togpantry@gmail.com. More information about volunteering can be found in our volunteer handbook.
Donate Food
At Table of Grace, we appreciate all donations of unopened, in date, shelf stable food. Because of the market style of our pantry, we can use small quantities of unusual items.
The following is a list of our most in demand items:
- Jelly (No glass, please)
- Condiments (No glass, please)
- Canned Fruit
- Canned Soup
- Ramen
- Canned Chicken
- Canned Green Beans
- Canned Com
- Canned Collard Greens
- Canned Yams
- Broth
- Oil|
Seasonal:
- All Cream of soups
- Cranberry Sauce
Give to Table of Grace
Your support makes a real difference in the lives of our neighbors
Your gift can feed:
- a Veteran for 1 year ($25)
- an elderly couple for 1 year ($50)
- a single mother with 2 young children for 1 year ($75)
- an elderly couple, their disabled adult child, and their grandchild for 1 year ($100)
- a grandmother raising 4 of her grandchildren for 1 year ($125)
- a family of 6 – who can’t make ends meet despite working multiple jobs – for 1 year ($150)
Our Food
West Alabama Food Bank
Table of Grace is an agency of the West Alabama Food Bank.
Donations
Table of Grace accepts food donations from organizations and members of the community. For questions about donations contact us at togpantry@gmail.com.
Fresh Food
Table of Grace partners with individuals, farms, and other organizations to glean from the foods they produce.
In addition, the Table of Grace garden of raised beds supplements the client choice marketplace.
Garden & Education Programs
The Table of Grace garden serves as garden education space and a source for some produce for the food pantry. It supports our existing gleaning relationships and helps us build more of them with the community. The Table of Grace Garden has been made possible by grants from the Tombigbee Resource, Conservation, & Development Council for the building of the Table of Grace Community Garden. RC&D grants are intended to help organizations make Alabama a better place to live, work, and play.
We are always looking for volunteer garden workers throughout the year to tend to this growing ministry. Experienced gardeners and newbies who are willing to roll up your sleeves and get dirty are welcome. The Table of Grace building and grounds is designed as a space for community members to congregate around food. This is a place for eating, cooking, and spreading education about food justice, sustainable garden practices, community engagement, and the like. It serves as a hub for food justice work throughout West Alabama.
Our Values
- Table of Grace is guided by the mission of Grace Presbyterian Church: Celebrating Christ’s universal love, we seek to do justice, embrace kindness, and walk humbly with God.
- Table of Grace’s primary objective is to ensure that those who are hungry have food. “I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” (Matthew 25: 35 CEB)
- Table of Grace is guided by these beliefs:
- Feeding people should always involve dignity and human connection.
- People deserve to have agency over what they eat, when, and how.
- Together we are stronger: we collaborate with individuals and organizations seeking to amplify their impact in tackling food injustice.
- Education is a mutual and essential element of expanding food justice work.
- Community is ever-evolving, inclusive, and expansive.
- Beauty, peace, and conversation guide our aesthetic and programming.
Our History
When Grace Presbyterian church formed from the merger of University and Covenant Presbyterian Churches, the newly formed congregation began envisioning its new identity and its new priorities. Quickly, it became clear that the first major area of growth the church wanted to invest in was finding a way to expand its long-standing, vibrant food ministry. Thus, began the work to build a new building dedicated to an expanded food market with client choice: Table of Grace!
Table of Grace as it exists today began as Deacons Food Pantry, a collective effort on the part of members of then-University Presbyterian Church to give emergency bags of food to families and individuals on an as-needed basis. In 1996, the program was formalized under the leadership of a team of deacons, and they became an Agency of the USDA-accredited West Alabama Food Bank. Distribution grew from limited to twice a month, nine months out of the year.
After Cathy C. Hoop joined the church as pastor in 2013, the program saw increased interest, and a professional was hired to manage the food pantry. In 2015, the Pantry relocated from its original location in a closet at University Presbyterian to the Covenant Presbyterian campus. The added parking and dedicated space enabled it to expand to year-round distribution. To signal the new partnership, the name was changed to Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry in January 2016.
University Presbyterian formally merged with Covenant Presbyterian to form the new Grace Presbyterian Church in January 2017. Table of Grace opened in its new building at Grace Presbyterian in the fall of 2023.
Our People
Table of Grace is run by a dedicated team of staff and volunteers.
Sherry Kimbro
Inventory Coordinator
Ann Weeden
