‘Criminalizing compassion’: Judgment Day for church’s food giveaway targeted for destruction

A city ordinance that put a bull’s-eye on a church food-distribution program has been repealed, opening the door for the Seventh-Day Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Florida, to continue its program to help people.

According to a report from the First Liberty Institute, the city’s ordinance that banned such programs was suspended earlier.

But now there’s been confirmation the provision has been repealed by the city, meaning the church can continue its food distribution ministry without the threat of immediate closure.

“The city previously agreed to allow the church to resume its food distribution ministry while it repealed its ordinance, and the city’s latest action of repealing the ordinance makes that temporary agreement permanent,” the legal team explained.

It was aided by the law firm Sidley Austin LLP in reaching the resolution.

“We are grateful to Daytona Beach city officials for working with us so that Seventh Baptist can resume its mission of providing food for the hungry, hurting people in the community,” Ryan Gardner, a First Liberty Institute lawyer, said in a statement. “People who take action to care for the hungry should be encouraged and affirmed. The church is thrilled to be able to continue helping those in need.”

The church has run a food pantry for the most vulnerable families in the community since about 2007.

“For most of that time, the city, and its citizens, not only allowed the church’s food ministry to thrive, but they also supported it and encouraged it. Even after the church moved to its current location – within what the city calls a ‘redevelopment area,’ just like its prior location – the city allowed the church to operate the food pantry without issue,” First Liberty Institute reported.

Then came an enforcement that forced the closure, and the filing of a now-dismissed lawsuit.

When the city brought its case against the church, a First Liberty official described it as “unconscionable.”

“People who take action to care for the hungry should be encouraged and affirmed, not threatened and fined. The city is criminalizing compassion,” Gardner said at the time.

The conflict apparently resulted from a complaint by a former city commissioner and her spouse that “these types of feeding programs are plagues to the efforts to redevelop a neighborhood” and that “crowds of people [are] sleeping on church steps and in alleys beside homes.”

The church had been threatened with a fine of $5,000 per day for running its food pantry.