Outreach Ministry: Spotlight On Martha’s Mustard Seed
Grace Episcopal Outreach MInistry Spotlight
Bonus content on the Glimpses of Grace podcast feed
Welcome to the next episode of the Grace Episcopal Outreach Ministry Spotlight, a series on the Glimpses of Grace podcast highlighting community partners supported by the Grace Episcopal Outreach Ministry in Gainesville and Hall County, Georgia. Each episode features local organizations making a measurable impact through service, advocacy, and compassionate support.
The Thanksgiving Feed: Serving Community in Gainesville-Hall County
In this episode, host Bruce Leyton sits down with Martha Randolph, local business owner and community organizer, and Angela Middleton, president of the North Georgia Black Business Alliance, at the historic Harper Smith House in Gainesville, Georgia — the only Black registered historic home in the Hall County area.
They discuss the Thanksgiving Feed, an annual tradition started 15 years ago that has grown from serving 250 people to over 2,000 meals each Thanksgiving Day. Martha and Angela share how the effort relies on a vast network of volunteers, corporate sponsors, and community groups — from the Omegas bringing their smokers to cook chicken all night, to Syfan Logistics donating cooler trailers, to longtime volunteers who return year after year knowing exactly what to do.
The conversation also covers the Women Without Walls initiative, the late Martha Zoller’s role as a catalyst, and the faith-driven motivation behind Martha Randolph’s commitment to serving her community. Along the way, they reflect on what it means to be “a drop in the bucket” — and how those drops, together, fill the whole.
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Transcript
Bruce: Good afternoon, everybody. We’re here to talk about the Thanksgiving Feed, but maybe just say a little bit about what the Harper-Smith House is?
Angela Middleton: Okay. Hi, everyone. My name is Angela Middleton. I’m the president of the North Georgia Black Business Alliance. And like Bruce said, we’re here at the Harper-Smith House at 817 Athens Street, Gainesville, Georgia. The Harper-Smith House is the only Black-registered historic home that we have here in the Gainesville-Hall County area. And we’re excited to have the recording here, and we’ll be excited for you to drop by and share some of our history of our Black history that we have here in Gainesville-Hall County. And the doors are open 365 days out of the year, so just give us a call and stop by and visit with us.
Bruce: And also with us is Martha Randolph.
Martha Randolph: I’m Martha Randolph, and I’m a local business owner here in Hall County. And we do a lot of different varieties of giving back to our community. And one of them is the Thanksgiving Feed, the Women Without Walls, our MLK Soup and Cornbread Day, our community cookout. And that’s what we are doing here right now.
Bruce: So, a lot of work to be done in the community. So start with the Thanksgiving Feed.
Martha Randolph: The Thanksgiving Feed was started about 15 years ago, when I started my catering business, and I said I got to give back to the community. And it was supposed to have been just doing the people what you used to call “under the bridge,” and that was supposed to have been like 250 people. But then that grew to 400, 500, and then each year it has grown. So now we’ve done a little over 2,000, and it consists of that whole week of prepping, different volunteers, and different community companies that have come in and helped us put this together. And it’s always done on Thanksgiving Day.
They start that Monday, and Miss Angela usually start out with her group, different groups coming in, chopping, doing whatever we got. We have different companies that usually just chime in. We have Syfan Logistics that always donate us a tractor-trailer cooler so we can keep everything in there cool and everything is set. We have another place where we do all our prepping and kitchen, and chopping and stuff, and I get that out the way. We have—Angela, if I miss somebody, jump in.
Angela Middleton: Okay.
Martha Randolph: We have Jaemor Farms, they’ll usually come in and help us with our cornbread like that Tuesday. And then we just have different days set up for different things that we have to do.
Bruce: Yeah, sure, sounds like a lot of contributors.
Martha Randolph: It is. We have a group of guys, what’s the group, Angela?
Angela Middleton: The Omegas?
Martha Randolph: And they’ve come in from Lawrenceville, Athens, and all over, and they bring in their smokers, and they’ll start that night before and cook all night long, chicken.
Angela Middleton: So this is a fun project for not only the—to feed the community, but for the whole—the entire community to give back. So we’re so excited that we have all of the many, many groups that volunteer, the many families that volunteer, and then even the individuals that volunteer. It takes a group effort and it shows the love that we have here in Gainesville-Hall County area to feed those less fortunate.
Bruce: And when I talk to different organizations, they often talk about the numbers that they serve, and I think you’ve talked about 2,000 meals that are served, or thereabouts. That’s a large population. But I’m assuming within that population that you serve, who are the families that come that you serve?
Martha Randolph: It’s really amazing. When we first started out, we was just serving the underprivileged and homeless, but it has really grown into our elderly. And we got a large population of elderly that we serve. People have called me and said, “We’re not homeless, but we just can’t stand up and cook.” I said, “Anybody that wants a meal, you got a meal.” We’ve got Lighthouse Manor, we’ve got—Angela, help me out if I miss someone. We’ve got Salvation Army, we’ve got Good News at Noon. We provide all of their food for them on Thanksgiving. It’s just so many that we do provide for.
Angela Middleton: I’d like to just add, yes, it is a operation that it is take-out only. We serve a lot of individuals, in which we are giving them a plate or two and a Happy Thanksgiving greeting. But it’s also an opportunity for some of the larger places like Martha had mentioned, where they can sit down and do family-style, and we’re providing them meals and pans of food so that they can sit down together and have a Thanksgiving meal in their own dwelling, whatever that may be. And so we’re excited that we are able to provide that special moment for the individual that’s receiving their meal that day.
Martha Randolph: And we just started within the last two years, a group out of Jefferson had called and asked could they get on the list. And we said how many, so what we usually do then, what, 200, Angela? 200 plates, and they come and pick it up, and they take it back to Jefferson and serve it to their people there. So we getting people that’s calling in out of Hall County trying to get in, which we fine with it. We just need heads up, and then that way we’ll be able to prepare and set everything up.
Bruce: I’m just trying to figure out how you do it.
Martha Randolph: Volunteers. Volunteers, and then our corporate sponsorship.
Bruce: Somebody organizes it, though.
Martha Randolph: Yes. We’re like, I got so tickled, the other, about a week ago, my lawyer had called me, “Martha, what’s going on with the Thanksgiving Feed?” I said, “I haven’t started working on it, but I know I need to.” And he said, “Well, make sure you include me.” I said, “No problem.” And usually it’s so funny who gets me started with this, and I’m going to miss her dearly, is Martha Zoller.
Bruce: Yeah.
Martha Randolph: She—”Martha, what we doing? How we doing? You know, what’s going on?” I’d be like, “Martha, I’m getting there, Martha. I’m getting…” She would be my push to get it going. And then I’ll start with Angela, and this is who I call on. And we’ll start getting it together and setting up, and then we’ll start volunteers. And the thing of it is, we have so many people that want to volunteer, we basically at some point in time had to turn people away because we had so many volunteers.
Angela Middleton: So on that, helping organize volunteers, and food prep, and leading up to the Thanksgiving Day, I’ve been with Martha maybe 10 years out of the her 15. But each year we learn something, we get a little bit better, a little bit better, and a little bit better. That’s one way that we that we can feed two—2,000 people. And the second one is that we have volunteers that have been with us for years. They know what to do, they come back and they volunteer to do the exact same thing they did the year before, and they’re prepared. And so it makes it so much easier because we don’t have to train anyone new, but it gives us an opportunity to train those new people under that guidance of our former volunteers. So each one teach one, we all just jump in there and get it done. So we’re really very appreciative for our volunteers. It could not happen without—without them.
Bruce: So yeah, this year has been difficult, right? With the loss of people like Martha Zoller. But also last year was a difficult year for you. And I know you got a late start. You weren’t necessarily expecting to do it. So I’ve got two questions. I’d love to hear what motivates you, and then how do you sustain yourself, both—both of you? Because there’s got to be a motivating factor, and then how do you sustain that? It’s tough work.
Martha Randolph: I’m going to say this. I started years ago because God had placed it on my heart, and I knew everybody’s here for a reason, and you got to figure out what your reason is. Mine was to serve people and to serve the community, that was mine. That’s mine. And that’s what I have to do to give back. And that’s—and I’m praying and hoping I’m doing it right and pleasing to God. But that’s mine, and that’s what motivates me. Because when we did Women Without Walls, we had about a month and a half to put that together. And I’m like, “Okay, if we get 80 people, we good.” Well, it seemed like the Lord just came in and took over, and I’m sitting there looking at him, I said, “You scaring me, Lord,” because it just seemed like everything just started falling in place and everything started putting together. And we had what, a little over 200 that we served? So I’m like, that’s nobody—it wasn’t us.
Bruce: Yeah.
Martha Randolph: We was just the hands and the feet.
Bruce: Got it. I remember you relating a story to me about a friend who talked about the drop in the bucket.
Martha Randolph: Ah, the drop in the bucket. If God put a bucket in front of you, and you got to fill that bucket up, and if you one of the drops in the bucket, then that bucket is going to get filled. And it was—I can’t remember all what I told you, but I remember that part of it. And I hope to be one of them drops in that bucket.
Bruce: So often we look at the problems that we’ve got, and we tend to be overwhelmed by them. But if you look at the work that’s done in the community, and the work that you’re doing, it’s phenomenal. So thank you for that.
Martha Randolph: Because out of the Women Without Walls, when we did—when we went and got the young ladies, and we put them at different tables with people from the community, one lady in particular stood out. Because once she sat down at that table, and the people started talking with her, they said, “We’re going to work with you with your education and what you have,” and they took off with her. So that’s that drop in the bucket. So you can start with that.
Bruce: Well, thank you very much for sharing with me today. I want to thank you so much. I learned so much from you, and thanks for allowing me to participate today.
Martha Randolph: Thank you.