-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Seventh Day Baptist Church of Daytona Beach will be allowed to resume weekly free food giveaways through its small food pantry following a year-long battle with the city concerning a ban on redevelopment-area church food pantries. The church is dropping its lawsuit against the city of Daytona Beach, which was filed in April 2024 — six months after the city ordered the church to shut down its food pantry over a local law that banned church food pantries in the city’s five redevelopment areas. As part of the recent resolution, the city will also enter into a formal settlement agreement, according to The Daytona Beach News-Journal .
The agreement will include the city repealing its ordinance, Daytona Beach attorney Chobee Ebbets, who has represented Seventh Day Baptist pro bono, told the outlet. “It's a big win,” Ebbets added. “That sweet little church will be able to feed people again.
” Seventh Day Baptist Church’s food pantry was shut down in October 2023 following complaints from a family living near the church. One family member sent an email to the city last September, saying he saw a woman camped out on the sidewalk in front of his house the previous week “waiting for the food pantry to open,” per an April report from The Daytona Beach News-Journal . He added that a mailman told him that no deliveries were made on the days the pantry was open “because of the line of people waiting for food.
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