UA Program Helps Nonprofit Feed Thousands in Birmingham

Pastor Charles Davis had a problem: A man kept bringing him bread.

A local man was gathering day-old bread from businesses around the Birmingham area and needed someone to distribute it. “Whatever you do,” he said to Davis, “don’t put the bread in the dumpster.” Davis promised not to waste it, and he gave most of it to community members surrounding his church building in Birmingham.

A few years earlier, in 2014, Davis had moved his church into a 10,000 square-foot commercial property, a warehouse and office space combination, located in Wylam, a historic neighborhood in the western side of Birmingham. As a former girls’ basketball coach, Davis was amused to learn that the space used to be a gym.

Now that the church and its nonprofit, Royal Divinity Ministries, was in Wylam, the next question was how best to help his neighbors. Davis tried providing a variety of things in addition to food distribution: furniture, clothing, even appliances.

Meanwhile, people in the surrounding area had started referring to Royal Divinity as “the bread church.”

A Missed Flight, an Opportunity

Davis and his wife, Jameria, were packed and ready to board a flight to Africa for discipleship training when the COVID-19 lockdowns began and flights were grounded. UA Senior Instructor of Accounting Lisa McKinney called Davis on the phone an hour later.

“I’m kind of glad that you didn’t go,” McKinney told a surprised Davis, “because I think you are going to be important to this pandemic.” But, McKinney said, Royal Divinity needed to specialize.

As director of Culverhouse LIFT, a community outreach and experiential learning program in UA’s Culverhouse College of Business, McKinney saw an opportunity to partner with Royal Divinity in supplying food to Wylam area families who were affected by the pandemic. So after Davis and McKinney met with key leaders to confirm the new focus for Royal Divinity, LIFT students helped get the Wylam space into shape to receive mass quantities of food.

Almost immediately, Sysco showed up with two trailers of restaurant-quality produce. “And from that point, it was never empty again,” Davis laughed.

Need a LIFT?

The University of Alabama’s mission statement is “to advance the intellectual and social condition of the people of the state, the nation and the world through the creation, translation, and dissemination of knowledge with an emphasis on teaching, research and service.”

The Culverhouse LIFT initiative, McKinney explained, directly fulfills this mission.

Specifically, she went on, the LIFT program reaches out to the Tuscaloosa, West Alabama, and Birmingham communities and uses University resources, both financial and human capital, to improve the job skills of the adult and teen populations. LIFT provides free classes for low-income and disadvantaged individuals who would otherwise not have access to such courses and education. Additionally, LIFT supports the nonprofit and small business community through assistance in financial, organizational, administrative and other business matters.

I am very grateful that The University continues to provide the resources for a relationship that serves so many needy people in Alabama and contributes so much to the growth and development of our University students.

Lisa McKinney

Basically, McKinney wants to lead UA students in using their education to help others, and Royal Divinity isn’t the only place that LIFT serves. LIFT students go to nursing homes and direct activities for seniors. They tutor K-12 youth. They even help veterans navigate the online VA benefits system.

McKinney conservatively estimates that since 2019, LIFT has spent over 1,100 total faculty/staff hours and over 2,800 total student hours in partnership with Royal Divinity. Represented in volunteer hours include UA’s School of Accountancy along with the departments of management, marketing, and economics, finance, and legal studies as well as the School of Social Work.

“My involvement with Royal Divinity Ministries, Pastor Charles Davis, and his wife, Jameria, is the most rewarding personal and professional experience I have had in my life,” McKinney said. “Being granted the opportunity by Dean Palan and Chair Rich Houston to use University students and resources to aid the organization is a tremendous gift and trust for which I will always be grateful.”

In serving Royal Divinity, faculty and staff have kept books, prepared tax forms, assisted with acquiring grants, helped with strategic planning and organized and supervised student volunteers.

Heavy Lifting

For their part, students have prepared spreadsheets and other documents, and provided consulting services, with faculty guidance, on operation management components of the ministry, like inventory. LIFT students have also rolled up their sleeves and physically labored in the warehouse, including organizing, charting and preparing food boxes. Finally, they have undertaken administrative work of all kinds, especially that involving technology, and have helped identify the needs of the community, including utilities, housing, medicine and other services.

“University students have donated thousands of hours of time to this organization over the past five years — packing food boxes for distribution, sorting through apples to divide between human and animal consumption, planning an inventory management project, providing bookkeeping and accounting services, preparing brochures and other administrative materials, donating clothing and household items for the future thrift store, and filming tasks for a volunteer management program,” McKinney said. 

“So many of the students that have volunteered have told me what an impact their volunteering at the food center made on them,” she went on. “There are some that have remained in contact with the Davis after graduation.”

One of those students is Amy Bragg, who is pursuing her master’s in operations management.

“Working alongside Pastor Davis, Mrs. McKinney, and my fellow volunteers at Royal Divinity Ministries has been the most impactful experience of my college career,” she said. “The passion everyone involved in this ministry has for their community is truly inspiring. The work that Pastor Davis and his team do to care for the people in Wylam is both significant and vital.”

“My contributions include counting inventory, assisting with bookkeeping, preparing financial statements, and recording data for RDMI’s quarterly diaper drives in partnership with Bundles of Hope,” said UA junior Colin Ashby. “I’ve loved serving the greater Birmingham community and I’m grateful to continue helping those in need.”

The passion everyone involved in this ministry has for their community is truly inspiring. The work that Pastor Davis and his team do to care for the people in Wylam is both significant and vital.

Amy Bragg

“My overall experience at Royal Divinity has been unique, given the positivity and humility Pastor Charles and everyone else involved has towards helping the community,” UA senior Liam Obias agreed. “The effort that everyone has provided for this project will truly be inspiring and will serve a long-lasting effect going forward. I am beyond blessed to be given this opportunity to help and I will forever cherish these moments.”

A Community Without Excuses

Now, the Royal Divinity space contains a fully outfitted food clearinghouse, with shelves for shelf-stable items and walk-in freezers. Currently, Davis says that the ministry serves between 100-200 families — between roughly 400 and 1,200 individuals — but during the worst of the pandemic, he estimates that over a million people were served.

Increasingly, though, Royal Divinity has shifted its focus to case management, or working with clients to discover root causes for ongoing issues like food or economic insecurity, homelessness or lack of access to medical care. So, Davis and Royal Divinity are working to create a “community with no excuses,” systematically removing barriers and providing the resources people need to become self-sufficient and successful. This can involve things like providing transportation, access to healthcare, job assistance, and other wraparound services.

“Sometimes, I watch a case manager sit there for maybe two, three hours, with one person,” Davis explained. “The client leaves here, though, with an appointment to get food stamps, an appointment to get this, get that, and the next time I see them, they’re a different person.”

What’s next? Davis is reluctant to over-prescribe the future. With four new employees being onboarded, he wants to leave room for their creativity in steering Royal Divinity. But whatever direction they go, they can be sure that McKinney and her Culverhouse LIFT volunteers will be there to help.

“The commitment of the University to community outreach efforts such as Royal Divinity is unwavering and extremely generous. I am very grateful that The University continues to provide the resources for a relationship that serves so many needy people in Alabama and contributes so much to the growth and development of our University students,” said McKinney.