'Earth angel' has been cooking for the homeless and hungry for years. She needs your help.

The Rev. Sylvia Tisdale and her Epps Christian Center held a fundraiser luncheon Tuesday to support the church's Ecomfort outreach branch and was asked who catered the meal of turkey, dressing, gravy, ham, yummy candied yams, mac & cheese, green beans and peach cobbler.

"I cooked the food,'' Tisdale replied.

Duh. Of course, she did.

For 17 years, Tisdale, a retired Social Security Administration employee, has been arriving around 4:30 a.m. each morning at the Epps Christian Center on Pace Boulevard to cook up healthy, hearty breakfasts for the hungry and homeless. Sometimes they're not homeless. Just struggling and hungry. Tisdale and the Epps Christian Center feed about 300 to 400 people weekly.

Now, Tisdale and her Epps Christian Center have become a community favorite, operating not just a soup kitchen, but a food pantry, a community garden, ID services and so much more.

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About 50 folks attended Tuesday's fundraiser at the Bayview Community Resource Center at Bayview Park to help support Epps Christian Center and its Ecomfort outreach program, which includes food giveaways, assists with job applications, helps with applying with benefits and most recently added a ID program to help those in need obtain birth certificates needed for driver's licenses. In many cases, Epps Christian Center and Ecomfort will pay the funds needed to obtain a driver's license, which is needed to secure jobs, housing, open bank accounts and other services.

Tisdale and her crew of volunteers provide the work, but she said it has been the Pensacola community's support that has allowed Epps Christian Center to expand its outreach and continue to help those in need. In March, Epps Christian Center received a $20,000 grant from The Hive, an outreach program of Innisfree Foundation, which also donated $10,000 in 2021 to help the church pay off its mortgage.

In 2021, one anonymous donor gave Epps Christian Center $40,000 to help buy the 18,295-square-foot lot adjacent to the center and food pantry. It's a lot she has used to conduct countless food drives and community outreach programs over the years, even though Epps Christian Center never actually owned the land. And there have been so many others - businesses and individuals - who have rallied to Tisdale and her church offering support.

"I am so blessed to have the community behind me,'' Tisdale said. "There are a lot of people hurting, and we're just trying to help the people who need it."

One of those people is Steven Robinson, 33, who jumped a train from Montgomery and jumped off in Pensacola. Soon, he was pointed to Epps Christian Center, where he met Tisdale.

On Tuesday, Robinson was one of the volunteers serving up food at the fundraiser. Now, he has a place to live and is getting his life back on track - due to "God and Pastor Tisdale,'' he said.

"She made my beliefs stronger, she's walking God's walk,'' Robinson said. "You have to be around positive people and her spirit uplifts my spirit. She's an amazing woman."

Then, he went back to serving food.

Tisdale made headlines in 2022 when she announced she would attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, a Tanzanian peak that is the highest mountain in Africa. Though she didn't make it to the top, the climb - which she attempted to raise money to fight food insecurity and hunger - did raise more than $20,000 in a Go Fund Me campaign to help feed the hungry in our community.

Dianne Krumel, president of the Escambia County Democratic Women's Club, called Tisdale an "Earth angel."

"We believe in her cause,'' Krumel said. "We believe in Pastor Tisdale. She has done so much for this community and it's tireless, hard work. She fills a need in Pensacola and her dedication is unbelievable. We try to help her and have been supporting Epps Christian Center and Pastor Tisdale for years."

Pensacola City Council member Teniadé Broughton, who represents District 5, was guest speaker at Tuesday's fundraiser and talked about the shifting views on food over generations. She lamented the lack of folks, and sometimes even families, who don't gather together in "the rituals of food'' as once before. Fast food and fast lives have "deprioritized food",'' Broughton said.

How much has our attitudes about food changed through the years?

"I Googled 'How to fight hunger' and you know what I got, right?" Broughton asked the audience. "Appetite suppressants, diet pills. And these were at the top. This is what we're up against."

For more information or to support Epps Christian Center, go to Epps Christian Center.

This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: Epps Christian Center and Sylvia Tisdale grows beyond a soup kitchen