The Turtle Shell-F food pantry opens their doors in College Station

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) - What started as a one-night grassroots effort to feed people during the government shutdown in October has turned into a permanent resource in South College Station.

The Turtles are an over-80-member local bible study group at Christ Church. Jami Fish is a member and said she heard a call to help while people were not receiving benefits during the longest government shutdown in recent U.S. history.

“He just kept on pressing on my heart, ‘I want you to feed my sheep,’ and I was like, Lord, I don’t understand what that means,” Fish remembered.

Wanting to help, Fish reached out to her fellow ‘Turtles’ who quickly rallied behind her.

“I called my girls and said, ‘Ladies, the Lord wants us to feed a sheep. I said, I don’t know what this looks like exactly, but when we meet tonight, we’re [going] feed [the] sheep,” Fish explained.

The Turtles got to work days before Halloween, bringing in wagons of food and putting together meals to hand out.

“We gave out over 100 meals Halloween night to people all over, people from Bryan, people from Navasota,” exclaimed Fish.

Seeing the need and positive reactions, The Turtles kept the effort going.

“We started making meals for the homeless, and we [had] non-cooked meals we were all carrying in our cars,” Fish said. “We’d see people, and we’d feed them, and we’d pray for them.”

After handing out what Fish estimates to be around 700 meals since Halloween, The Turtle officially opened their Turtle Shell-F Food Pantry in the back parking lot of Christ Church near Costco.

“You do not have to show us your driver’s license. You don’t have to be part of a program or anything like that. Just come share with us what your needs are, and we will help you,” said The Turtles founder, Farrah Spears.

A fellow member of The Turtles, Donna Tupper, said this initiative is about more than just handing out food.

“We get to pray with them, and just let them know that we’re not here just to hand out food and wish you on your way. We want to make sure that they feel loved,” Tupper noted.

Erin Walker helps inventory the food at the pantry. She said giving back is the best part.

“The thing about serving is that it fills your heart, even when you’re giving to others, it fills your heart sometimes more than receiving,” Walker said.

The pantry will be open every Tuesday morning from 9 AM to 11 AM, and then again every Thursday evening from 5 PM to 7 PM. The Turtles are hoping to open on a few Saturdays a month in the future, but for now want to be open at times that work for everyone.

They run on donations and accept food, cash, checks, or Venmo. They also welcome volunteers to the pantry. The Turtle Shell-F is an acronym for “Serving Him, Extending Love, and Lifting Families,” which they hope this new resource will do just that.

“This isn’t just random food that we’re throwing at people and saying, you know, good luck on making a meal with [it],” Fish added. “We’re putting meals together with recipes on how to make the meal.”