Dilworth’s Seeds of Hope Community Food Pantry was created and is operated by (from left) assistant manager Carol Sailer and directors Blair and Jodi Hill. (Photos/Nancy Hanson.)
Carol Sailer (at right) and Jodi Hill welcome Seeds of Hope food pantry “neighbors” with coffee when they arrive to pick up groceries.
Seeds of Hope founder Blair Hill says their freezers are filled with frozen meats and other products received through the Great Plains Food Bank’s Retail Rescue program.
Taking Mission to the Street
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
Blair and Jodi Hill may be ordained ministers, but their mission has taken them far from the pulpit. Instead of preaching, they’re insuring their hungry neighbors can eat.
In Dilworth, the Seeds of Hope Community Food Pantry has become a staple on Center Avenue. Housed in a storefront that previously held antiques, the pantry – entirely staffed by volunteers – opens its doors at 6 p.m. every Tuesday. Inside, families and individuals can pick up a box of the basics, then browse the shelves for canned and packaged foods. The stock includes bread, too, along with freezers full of meats and refrigerated dairy products.
“We used to call them ‘shoppers,’” says Blair, “but now we call them ‘neighbors,’ for that’s who they truly are.
“A lot of people think you have to go to Africa or Central America when they hear the word ‘mission.’ But you don’t have to go halfway around the world. You can have a mission right here at home. There are real needs here in our own community – people who are homeless on the street, people who are struggling with addictions … people who are hungry.”
Seeds of Hope was planted alongside three busy Center Avenue bars at the end of 2023. The bright, welcoming storefront is the latest project of the home missionary couple, who previously helped build a similar pantry in West Fargo and visited prisons across the region.
Blair explains that home missionaries, like he and his wife, do God’s work outside the church itself in their own communities. “See, we’ve pastored churches before, but we’re not doing that now. Our mission is serving the greater Fargo Moorhead area, and that’s where the food pantry came from. We want to meet our community’s needs right here at home, obeying Matthew 25 to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, love them.
“We’re literally right on the street here. That’s why we picked this spot.”
Center Avenue isn’t the first street where the two ordained Assembly of God pastors have pursued their mission. Blair’s first experience was preaching at the Faith Miracle Rescue Mission on NP Avenue back when the Pink Pussycat Lounge, the Round-Up and the XXX-rated bookstore were its neighbors. “We had Tuesdays and Thursday night services for everybody hanging out in the street,” he remembers, “… the drunks, the drug addicts, the homeless, the people who wandered around down there, the clients of the dirty bookstore, all the people who wandered around down there.” More recently, they’ve visited with inmates in prisons across Minnesota and brought their “Blair and Jodi Show” to churches and revivals throughout the region.
“Sometimes good church-going people get stuck inside four walls,” Jodi points out, “and don’t see the needs – the real needs that are just outside their doors.”
Seeds of Hope is one of at least 10 food banks or pantries on the Minnesota side of the metro area, but the first in Dilworth. The Hills say that while they primarily serve the people of Dilworth and Moorhead, the pantry is open to everyone who needs it. That usually means about 125 people in 60 or so family groups turn up for their weekly Tuesday night distributions.
No appointments are needed Neighbors, as they call them, gather outside the door before they open at 6 p.m. Because space is limited, assistant manager Carol Sailer – whom Blair jokingly calls “our logistics manager” – admits a few families at a time. They first complete a simple one-time Minnesota form attesting to their eligibility. Then volunteers help them augment the staples in their prepacked boxes with dairy, meat, bread, and packaged choices.
The Great Plains Food Bank provides the great majority of the products on Seeds of Hope’s shelves, along with its freezers and refrigerators. Most of the nonperishables are provided through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Food Bank’s Retail Rescue (formerly known as Daily Bread) collects truckloads of meat and other products that have aged beyond their sell-by dates but are still perfectly good, including prepared foods from supermarket delis, cut fruit and unsold produce.
Grants also come from Minnesota’s TEFAP, The Emergency Food Assistance Program, also originating with the USDA.
Some products arrive directly, including products collected for Seeds of Hope in food drives. The DGF school system carried out a big one last year, with all classrooms competing to collect the most donations. “They brought us 2,400 different items plus $1,200 in cash,” Blair reports. Local churches occasionally stage food drives for Seeds of Hope. Sometimes, too, individuals drop off food donations.
The community food pantry runs on a shoestring. “We need three things: food, cash and volunteers,” Blair points out. The cash is used to buy provisions, both from Great Plains (at highly discounted prices) and from stores. He cites the Dilworth and Hitterdal Lions Clubs, who have each donated for several years; Burning Hearts Church of West Fargo; and Dilworth’s United Savings Credit Union among their donors.
The essential volunteers who help with weekly distributions are drawn from an interdenominational array of 10 to 15 churches, including, Jodi says, “Free Baptist, Pentecostal, Charismatic and the whole array of Lutheran” congregations. Red River Recovery has assigned helpers. Dakota Fusion Soccer sent international players in the summer of 2024. NDSU’s Theta Chi fraternity members help during the school year. “Some of our volunteers come in organized groups,” she adds, “and some just show up.” Among the latter are neighbors who’ve received help in the past and pitch in to pay it forward.
The Hills emphasize that, to reach more families who need their help, their most pressing need is for more volunteers to help with distributions. “If we had more, we could be open more than one night a week,” Jodi points out.
While the food pantry is at the center of the Hills’ mission work, they’re also involved in education and outreach. Classes are held each Friday to teach leadership and outreach to other potential home missionaries. They also conduct periodic worship and revival meetings; their next Fire in the Valley session is coming up June 21 at the Ramada Inn, 3333 13th Ave. S. in Fargo.
More information on helping Seeds of Hope as a donor, volunteer or supporter can be found online by googling “Seeds of Hope Dilworth” or checking out Facebook and Instagram. The pantry’s phone is 218-288-4300. Inquiries and donations can also be mailed to PO Box 212, Dilworth MN 56529.
