It’s nice to get a pat of the back for a job well done. And it’s especially nice when you’re a 78-year-old former logger working hard through your “golden years” running a food pantry for the needy.
Wes Higgins got that pat on the back last week from the Good Morning America show, which features a story and video about Higgins’ work. The show’s producers honored Higgins and others for their volunteer work, according to an article in the Gainesville Sun by Cindy Swirko and Megan Rolland
“When you’re working for the Lord there is no full-time job, you just do what you need to do,” Higgins told Swirko and Rolland. The show named Higgins are as one of its “AmeriCANs,” during an interview on the program.
From his home in Old Town, Fla., Higgins runs a food pantry called Feed the Needy. The pantry distributes donated food to more than 14 churches in Florida’s Dixie County.
“I started doing it when I was 5 years old. We growed our own stuff and canned it. And we’d go to people’s houses that needed food and we’d give it to them,” Higgins told GMA.
In Dixie County the need is acute. Some parts of the county have unemployment approaching 19 percent. Higgins and his team of volunteers work seven days a week to continue to bring breads, cakes and canned goods to those in need.
“When you give someone a loaf of bread and tears run out of their eyes,” Higgins told GMA, “everybody ought to be doing it.”
Photo courtesy of phil_g, via Flickr