Obesity. Diabetes. Hypertension. Stroke. Poor cognitive performance. These are just a few of the conditions that can result from living in an area with low access to fresh foods. These food insecure areas known as food deserts occur almost exclusively in low-income minority communities, both urban and rural.1 Mercy Deliverance Ministries aims to help solve this problem by providing easy-access to fresh food by means of mobile grocery vehicles. Factors that contribute to the formation of food deserts are complicated and numerous. Low populations in rural areas where people cannot readily get ..read more

The 31st Annual Community Leadership Awards took place at Vestavia Country Club on Feb. 22, during which the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Karen Odle, and Antoinette “Toni” Vines took home the Distinguished Citizen Award. Vines is the founder and president of Mercy Deliverance Ministries, which was established in an effort to break cycles of poverty with the delivery of fresh food, health care and education. Read full write-ups in the January and March issues of OTMJ: January 2022 March 2022 The post Founder Toni Vines Recognized as Distinguished Citizen of the Year by Leade ..read more

Obesity. Diabetes. Hypertension. Stroke. Poor cognitive performance. These are just a few of the conditions that can result from living in an area with low access to fresh foods. These food insecure areas known as food deserts occur almost exclusively in low-income minority communities, both urban and rural.1 Mercy Deliverance Ministries aims to help solve this problem by providing easy-access to fresh food by means of mobile grocery vehicles. Factors that contribute to the formation of food deserts are complicated and numerous. Low populations in rural areas where people cannot readily get ..read more

MDM Partners with American Heart Association to Expand HBCUs Scholars Program Young African-American Female Researcher After being asked to serve as the American Heart Association’s 2021 Heart Ball Honorees, Toni and her husband Tim, both of whom serve as MDM board members, chose the American Heart Association’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Scholars Program as their platform for the year. The decision was made to expand the program by forming a new partnership between students from Tuskegee University and volunteer researchers from nearby Auburn University. The HBCUs S ..read more

Farmers to Families Food Box Distribution: Ensley – Saturday, October 31, 2020 It all started with a phone call from Tahiera Brown, Executive Director of The Interlocking of Arms: The Gussie Grant Foundation, on September 22, 2020.  After viewing a recent Atlanta news story about Community Teen Coalition and its founder Dominic Stokes’ successful distributions in the Atlanta area and being aware that Jefferson County, Alabama had not received any food box distributions during the current third phase of the government’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, Tahiera reached out to Mr. Stoke ..read more

Mercy Deliverance Ministries is partnering with the American Heart Association in expanding their Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Scholars Program by forming a new partnership between Tuskegee and Auburn Universities. This expansion will sponsor 9 students – three students per year for the next three years. Students attending HBCUs interested in obtaining professional degrees in the biomedical and health sciences are encouraged to apply. Each student enrolled in the program is paired with a volunteer research mentor. The students will learn about the health of their com ..read more

Mercy Deliverance Ministries’ founder, Toni Vines’ life is a reflection of God’s goodness, grace, and mercy. Exactly what is Mercy Deliverance Ministries?  What are you doing?  How do you plan to do it?  How did all of this come about? When asked these questions, I always start by explaining how God gave me these ideas and visions while in prayer over 16 years ago. I was a stay at home mom who had recently left the best nursing job in the world at a local adult HIV/AIDS Infectious Disease Clinic. The second answer I typically give is that Mercy Deliverance Ministries is nothing ..read more

Hawaii? Why Hawaii? I get those questions often as people try to wrap their minds around Mercy Deliverance Ministries’ assignment. The simple answer is that while flying home from Hawaii on a red eye, God said, “Go back to Hawaii for medical missions.” An amazing sunrise over Manele Bay, Hawaii on July 4, 2019, at 6:02 am My family and I ended up in Hawaii after missing the flight to our original destination as we were traveling to celebrate our daughter’s high school graduation. After missing the first flight, we planned to catch another flight an hour and a half later. When that flight was cance ..read more