Tracy Hipps, the executive director of Birmingham’s Christian Service Mission, right, with Rhonda Marshall, CSM’s food ministry coordinator. Journal photo by Jordan Wald.
By Donna Cornelius
Tracy Hipps, the executive director of Birmingham’s Christian Service Mission, has a pipe in his office. It’s not the kind your grandfather smoked but a piece of conduit – and it’s a symbol of his organization’s purpose and focus.
“We’re about making connections,” Hipps said.
Christian Service Mission, with headquarters in Avondale, serves those in need by working with partners that range from small churches and minis- tries to large nonprofits such as the Lovelady Center and Brother Bryan Mission.
“We meet with prospective partners to find out what their vision is,” Hipps said. “Our goal is partnerships – connecting resources with needs. We talk and we collaborate. We’re very relational in what we do. We want to make disciples and to come together.”
Hipps said a church pastor recently emailed him to ask if CSM could provide a bed for a family in need.
“I told him we had a bed to give to his church, and then the church can give it to the family,” Hipps said.
Rhonda Marshall, CSM’s food ministry coordinator, said the organization’s partners are able to provide long-term support to those who need it.
“Our partners are ministering to these families,” Marshall said. “If someone comes here to get a bed, they wouldn’t connect with anyone. It would be just a quick fix. This way, they can become part of a local body which can provide continual care.”
The food ministry program is a major component of the organization. CSM receives donations from corporate partners, buys large quantities of food at low costs and distributes that food to its partners.
CSM is housed in the old Wood Fruitticher Grocery Co. building in Avondale and has about 80,000 square feet of warehouse space – something churches and other groups don’t have.
“We have 8,600 square feet of cold storage space alone,” Hipps said. “Our freezer is the size of a basketball gym.”
Marshall is in charge of food distribution – a big job since CSM partners with about 50 organizations that serve 10,000 or so families.
“Food is a great connector,” Hipps said. “Eighty percent of this city is in a food desert.”
A food desert is an urban area in which it’s difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. CSM targets communities that fall into this category: Avondale, East Lake, Fairfield, North Birmingham, Pratt City, West End and Woodlawn.
“There are no grocery stores in some neighborhoods, so people – especially those with transportation problems – end up shopping at the corner store and paying high prices,” Hipps said.
Another component of CSM’s food ministry is its gardens. Six are on partners’ property throughout the Birmingham area.
“We help establish the gardens with our partners, and then they run them,” Hipps said.
In addition to one outside garden, CSM’s Avondale campus has a hydroponic and aquaponic garden.
Aquaponics is a system that combines conventional aquaculture – in this case, raising fish – with hydroponics, which is cultivating plants in water.
“We also do canned food drives,” Marshall said. “Once a year, we do Thanksgiving turkey and ham baskets. This last Thanksgiving, we did about 3,200 baskets. We had about 1,000 volunteers for that. We don’t have people line up here to receive the baskets. We have them visit one of our partners, or we deliver the baskets to their homes.”
Marshall said she’s excited about another plan for CSM’s food ministry.
“We’re trying to put in a commercial kitchen so that we can have cooking clubs to influence what people cook and how they cook it,” she said. “We can cook together and talk about menus that are healthy but affordable.”
While feeding the hungry is one of CSM’s main missions, the organization has other programs, too. Its housing ministry builds and repairs houses to improve living conditions, restore neighborhoods and revitalize Birmingham’s inner city communities. Its outreach ministry focuses on evangelism and provides opportunities for service.
“We have about 10,000 volunteers a year,” Hipps said. “They can help out with food distribution, in our shop or in the kitchen. We have only eight full-time staff members, so volunteers are crucial. You can come in and serve for a couple of hours if that’s all the time you have.”
Marshall said entire families can pitch in at CSM.
“When you can bring your children in to volunteer with you, it makes a great impact in their lives,” she said. “They can help sort canned goods or put bread in boxes. It’s not just mom coming in; kids come, too, especially during the holidays and summers.”
Students come to help from all over the Birmingham area – and they often end up making new friends as well as serving others.
“We have kids from Over the Mountain schools and inner city schools, and we’ve brought them together,” Marshall said.
Christian Service Mission was founded in 1971 by Johnny Lynch. Over the years, the organization operated thrift store and women’s shelters as well as providing food distribution. During the 1980s through 2000, CSM operated Food Source, which distributed food to about 60,000 families every month in Alabama and other Southern states.
In 2010, Hipps became executive director, and CSM took on the ministry structure it has today. The South Carolina native first came to Birmingham in 1980 to go to Southeastern Bible College. He worked in Chicago as a missionary and returned to Birmingham in 1990.
He said he and Marshall went to church together and worked together in other charitable efforts. Marshall, a for- mer AmSouth banker, was at CSM from 1995 to 2005.
“She first brought me here,” Hipps said.
Marshall left CSM to work at the Center for Urban Missions and then for Changed Lives Christian Center. A few years ago, it was Hipps’ turn to bring Marshall back to CSM.
“Tracy drew me back here,” she said. “Our hearts just connect. We have a friendship and are both ministry- minded.”
Hipps is a member of Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Vestavia Hills. Marshall, who’s from Birmingham, is a member of Metropolitan Church of God in Hoover.
Another key staff member is Jamie Barnhart, CSM’s director of operations. The Samford University graduate man- aged editorial production for Southern Living and Coastal Living magazines for 13 years. She is a member of Hunter Street Baptist Church in Hoover and is on the board of Grace’s Kitchen and the African Children’s Mission.
Hipps said he didn’t take on the job of executive director without concerns.
“The Lord called me here, and I told Him, ‘I don’t know what to do,’” Hipps said. “He said it’s all about the organization’s name – Christians serving the mission of God. It’s about responsible care for the least of these and spreading the gospel.”
Christian Service Mission is at 3600 Third Ave. South in Birmingham. For more information about the organization and volunteer opportunities, visit csmission.org or call 397-9999.
