In just under two years, founders of nonprofit Feeding On Faith Judy Mattox and Mary Stevens said, they have likely served more than 2,000 meals to Warren County residents in need.
Mattox, a member of Element Church Warrenton, and Stevens, a member of Element Church Wentzville, initially started what would become Feeding On Faith as a private effort in fall 2024, buying all the food themselves that they cooked and gave away for free.
“We love to cook, and so we started feeding people,” Mattox said. “And we started out, it was just kind of us, and so our husbands said, ‘Hey, we can’t keep feeding people like this.’”
By spring of 2025, Stevens and Mattox began receiving donations and Feeding On Faith became an official nonprofit. It now has a total of about two dozen volunteers who help in various ways with its food distributions, which take place from 5 to 6:30 p.m. every other Monday at the Marylou Community Building in Truesdale.
Not all of those volunteers assist with every meal Feeding On Faith serves, though Stevens and Mattox and their husbands are staples of the food giveaways.
“Tonight’s an easy meal to serve, so we only have two people coming” in addition to those four, Stevens said at Feeding On Faith’s Sept. 28 meal distribution event. “But we’ve done meals where we’ve had six people here. We helped with National Night Out with Truesdale, we did the serving, and we had probably a dozen or better people here.”
Stevens noted that Feeding On Faith did not pay for the food at National Night Out, which is an event promoting police-community partnerships that takes place annually on the first Tuesday in August. The local Knights of Columbus cooked hot dogs for this year’s event, Stevens said, while Feeding On Faith wrapped and served them and kept the line moving.
Feeding On Faith serves about 100 meals directly to clients at each of its Monday distributions, as well as another 20 to 30 meals that its provides to Turning Point Advocacy Services, which operates a shelter for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, Mattox and Stevens said.
While area food pantries sometimes give Feeding On Faith extra food that they receive, and Feeding On Faith finds people or organizations to pass that food onto, the nonprofit does not necessarily seek donations of non-perishable foods the way food pantries do.
“Because we’re very restricted, because we’re under the health department rules, we’re not a church, so there’s big guidelines on that to follow,” Stevens said.
Monetary donations are always welcome, however, and can be made online at feedingonfaith.org, or physical checks, which are Feeding On Faith’s preferred payment method, can be sent to 7 E. Crestview Dr., O'Fallon, MO 63366.
While everyone who works for Feeding On Faith, including Mattox and Stevens, is a volunteer, those who receive their meals sometimes have misconceptions about how the organization works, asking them if they get paid or thinking the nonprofit is a government agency, Mattox said.
On the other hand, with how many meals they serve, sometimes the Feeding On Faith volunteers don’t realize their own personal connections to their clients.
“We went to church Sunday and there was a couple, and he goes, ‘Thanks for feeding us every other Monday,’” Mattox said, adding that she did not previously know the couple attended her church.
Feeding On Faith is already gearing up for the holidays, and while Stevens and Mattox have not finalized their plans for Christmas, they already know what they’re doing for Thanksgiving.
Feeding On Faith will serve a Thanksgiving meal the Monday before the official holiday, “because a lot of the churches do a Thanksgiving Day dinner,” Stevens said.
Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Warrenton has generously offered Feeding On Faith the use of its kitchen for the nonprofit’s Thanksgiving meal distribution, “because we can’t cook 12 turkeys in this kitchen,” Stevens added.
Feeding On Faith served just under 1,000 meals in 2025, its first year as an official nonprofit, and Mattox and Stevens said they think they’ve already passed that milestone for 2026.
Looking forward, Mattox said Feeding On Faith is hoping to expand its services.
“We’re hoping to get a food truck so we can deliver meals, mainly to children,” Mattox said, “especially on Mondays when they’re not in school.”
For now, though, Stevens and Mattox are focused on their immediate goal — helping to alleviate hunger for those in need in the community through their twice-monthly meal giveaways.
“We cook for, I like to say, like Jesus was coming to dinner,” Mattox said. “But I also say we cook for them like we cook for our family.”
