VIDALIA — Feed the Hungry director Sandra Vanier’s prayers were answered earlier this week with one phone call and a donation.

Vanier, who operates the Vidalia program that helps feed approximately 200 families each month, received a phone call from Ann Westmoreland, a City of Vidalia employee who also organizes the annual Jim Bowie BBQ Throwdown.

Westmoreland was calling to let Vanier know that the Kansas City Barbeque Society, which sanctions the annual Throwdown, chose the Vidalia event out of more than 425 events nationwide to be a part of its national barbecue donation effort.

The KCBS plans to cook and distribute more than 100,000 meals throughout the country by providing fully cooked pork butts and other nonperishable food items to food banks and other charitable entities.

Westmoreland said the KCBS committed to purchasing one pork butt for each team that signed up for the Vidalia event.

The news was exactly what Vanier needed to hear.

“We’ve had some problems with our building and other things that we need money to fix, so we’ve been praying and trying to figure out some kind of big fundraiser we could do to raise money,” Vanier said. “And then I get this call and it was like an answer to our prayers.”

The Feed the Hungry Vidalia program, which is a ministry of First Assembly of God in Vidalia, distributes 50-pound boxes of dried goods and a bag of frozen food to those who fall below federal poverty guidelines. Though the recipients do not pay for the food themselves, each family requires a $15 monthly sponsorship to keep the program afloat.

The majority of the funds the program receives, Vanier said, go right back into buying the food needed to feed area residents.

“We’re fortunate to be able to buy the food for the boxes at .18 cents a pound, but it’s the repairs to the building that need to get done that are really killing us,” Vanier said. “So when I got the call, I was just so excited because I knew that was something we could use to have a fundraiser to get some money together.”

Vanier said the organization recently had to replace compressors in the walk-in cooler. Those repairs, along with repairs to the thermostat and to a truck used to deliver meals, put a strain on the budget.

The donated pork butts, Vanier said, will be a welcome donation — even if she’s not exactly sure how she will use them yet.

“What we want to do is see if we could set up a booth at the event and sell the meat as sandwiches,” she said. “We’re not scared of doing the work if it means we can pull some money together.

“I know we could get enough people together to make some baked beans and get some buns to go along with the pork butts.”

Westmoreland said so far, eight teams are signed up for the Throwdown, which means the KCBS would provide eight pork butts to the Feed the Hungry program.

“We’re still working out some of the details, but I knew it would be something great to do for Feed the Hungry,” Westmoreland said. “(Vanier) was so excited when I called.”

By April 30, 2015, KCBS officials say the organization will have donated more than 3,200 pork butts, or 25,000 pounds of cooked pork, through its 100KCBS Meals Mission program.

“There are more than 7,000 teams who compete at our events, and for years, they all have demonstrated a giving, charitable mentality,” said Carolyn Wells, KCBS executive director, in a written statement. “We simply believed it was time to organize a major effort that is a natural extension of our overall mission.”

In addition to cooking the provided pork butts at participating events, the KCBS is encouraging all teams, judges and barbecue enthusiasts to bring non-perishable food items to the Throwdown, which will be Sept. 26 to 27 at the Vidalia Riverfront.

Vanier said she hopes to sell as many barbecue sandwiches as possible using the donated pork with the plan of using all the money raised for repairs to the organization’s building and truck.

“This is truly something we need, and I was starting to get a little worried it wouldn’t happen,” Vanier said. “Anytime you try to keep a program like this going and stuff keeps breaking, you wonder if it’s all worth it.

“Then something like this happens, and it’s like God is confirming what we’re doing and telling us to keep going.”