DALLAS — This year Easter is going to be different. Pastor Michael Waters of Abundant Life AME Church knows this Easter Sunday he won't be seeing people wearing Sunday their bests and filling up the church pews.
"Love likes an empty space...an empty building," Waters said.
Love for each other is what's keeping parishioners away during the coronavirus quarantine. Easter services throughout the country will be streamed live, including at the Abundant Life AME Church.
"It's going to be different," said Waters.
Easter is also about the gatherings and the food. Nobody knows "different" like Cheryl Jackson of Minnie's Food Pantry. She told WFAA the last 10 days have been a whirlwind.
"We've reached already what we have served in an entire month," said Jackson.
People are without jobs and ways of feeding their families. Easter gatherings will be toned-down either by the shelter-in-place rules or by the simple fact that funds are scarce.
"I see children in the backseats of cars saying, 'Yay, we have water now!' We have something as simple as water making a kid say, 'Yay,'" said Jackson.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Friday that 70% of people in line at community food banks have never been to one before. That is a staggering statistic.
At Minnie's Food Pantry in Plano the shelves are bare. Jackson says they only have three days of food left.
Jackson is desperate for donations, many food banks across the country are. She told WFAA that she invites donations of cereal, pasta and pasta sauce, because those meals can be stretched over longer periods of time.
RELATED: Minnie's Food Pantry in need as it provides more and more families with support amid COVID-19
"Who would think we would see something like this in America? It wouldn't be me...it wouldn't be me," said Jackson.
Pastor Waters says for those believers this may be the closest we get to the first Easter.
"This is the perfect time for an Easter message: there is still hope after a great tragedy," he said.
