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The best tutorial on how to correctly lift a heavy box can’t be found on YouTube. It can instead be found in a food pantry the size of an industrial warehouse located in Hidalgo, TX — and the teacher to look for is 50-year-old Mario Ramirez.

The operations manager position at Border Missions didn’t necessarily have performing box-lifting tutorials listed in the job description, but it’s one of the most important parts of Mario’s job. On a typical weekday in the warehouse, staff and volunteers could be lifting dozens of boxes of tomatoes, transporting car-sized bags of Kellogg’s cereal and dropping off palettes carrying a ton or more of donated produce. Mario is the first to remind anyone in the warehouse that “safety is our priority” — especially for a team that fills up to 1,400 plastic bags with fresh produce to be distributed each week.

These heavy boxes carry treasures for communities across South Texas and throughout Mexico. When it was founded in 1956, Border Missions began accepting food donations from local partners to distribute to individuals and families in need. Now, the nonprofit has grown to accept consistent donations from large corporations and food distributors, filling its four industrial freezers with dozens of palettes each day.

Mario started at Border Missions in 2020 after losing his previous job due to the pandemic. Megan and Roland Gonzalez, the directors of Border Missions, were looking for an operations manager and put Mario in charge of the assembly line that prepares bags to be distributed. He had worked for decades at big name companies like General Motors and Corning, but this is the first time he’s working for pleasure.

“I didn’t know a place like Border Missions existed,” Mario says. “In my mind, it was unthinkable.”

The foundational goal of Border Missions is to share the gospel through food. Every Thursday, the ministry hosts a distribution where staff and volunteers pass out bags of fruits, vegetables, rice, beans and whatever else they might have received that week in donations. The day before, volunteers and staff create an assembly line to efficiently pack thousands of these plastic bags to distribute to hundreds of people.

At 11 a.m. on Thursdays, the Border Missions team pauses the first half of the distribution to hold a worship service in their sanctuary. A local pastor is invited each week to preach to the large group. Painted on the wall in Spanish above his head is Border Missions’ signature Bible verse from the book of Hebrews: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

After the service, individuals are invited to stay for a free hot lunch before the distribution resumes. An in-house cook named Margarita prepares authentic Mexican meals daily for staff and volunteers, but a team of extra hands joins her for the larger order on Thursdays. Dishes like chicken and rice, posole and tamales provide nourishment and comfort to people who may have walked miles just to be there.

One of these individuals is the mother of Carlos Perez, who supports Border Missions in the warehouse and technology. Carlos grew up going to a church less than a mile away from Border Missions in Hidalgo. For about 10 years, his mom would wake up at 5 a.m. every Thursday and drive her Ford Fusion down the road, where there was always a line outside of Border Missions. She’d wait in line to pick up produce to deliver to her church, and chose to drive instead of taking the short walk so she could carry as much food back as she could.

“She would always find a way to pack that small little car to the brim,” Carlos says with a smile.

When Carlos saw there was an opening for volunteers in January 2022, he decided to support the mission that was so meaningful to his mom and their church. Less than a year later, Carlos is a Border Missions superstar — whatever is needed, he will likely end up doing (even standing in for Mario’s famous ergonomics demonstration when he’s not around).

Working at Border Missions has given Carlos a perspective on his community that he never would have seen. He was just a kid when his mom picked up food — unable to fully understand the poverty and injustice that drive individuals to Border Missions each Thursday.

“I’ve come to understand that the people who come here were brought here due to their background,” Carlos says.

It’s not only people on the U.S. side of the border that come to receive food. A large portion of the individuals served each week come from neighboring Reynosa, a Mexican border city accessible by an international bridge just miles down the road from Border Missions. Mexican residents with documentation wake up as early as 3 a.m. to grab their carts or duffels and walk across the border to Hidalgo. Border Missions even operates a shuttle that drives individuals from the distribution back to the border to cut a few miles off their long and tiresome journey.

It’s evident to Mario and Carlos that God is working through Border Missions in how he provides for the individuals in need and even for the team. The organization relies almost entirely on food and financial donations in order for the ministry to function. And oftentimes, the team finds that the food and the money just isn’t there. A slow week of food donations means they might have to limit how much food to distribute and inconsistent funding leads to questions on how the ministry and staff will be supported each month.

“We are always on our toes,” Carlos says.

In these situations, the team turns to prayer. And as a result, miracles happen. The staff receives an unexpected phone call from a supplier with a large shipment of food and nowhere to go with it. The day before a distribution starts with a team of four packing bags, and by mid-morning a group of volunteers shows up and triples the team’s size. To Carlos, these are more than just mere coincidences.

“I was seeing things get done through faith,” Carlos says.

Faith is what weaves together the hearts of the staff. The full-time team of seven feels more like family than a group of coworkers — and not only because Margarita’s husband, Lucio, also handles deliveries for Border Missions. Through times of sickness and heartbreak or joy and celebration, the team has seen God’s hand in each other’s lives and have been there to support one another as part of their community.

Exotic fruits aren’t what makes Border Missions unique. When Mario watches people leave Border Missions with their hands full and smiles on their faces, he thinks of love — the holy and perfect love he believes is given to humans as a gift from God and shared from one person to the next. For him, that is the message he wants to share: Behind all of the food is a God who wants to freely give his love to others.

“At the end, it’s love in action,” Mario says.

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