About Us | Transforming Lives | First Fruit Ministries

Our history

In 1998, founder Rick Stoker began bringing food and supplies to homeless, runaway children in downtown Wilmington

This quickly grew to be a street outreach to people living under bridges and in the woods of our community, women and girls caught in the commercial sex industry and human trafficking, and to our local gangs.

Rick felt so compelled to fully immerse himself in the homeless community that he left his prestigious medical sales career and moved under a bridge in downtown Wilmington. He recalls the gut-wrenching cries of homeless women caught in a cycle of sex work to get their next “fix” that kept him awake all night. At that moment, he knew this seemingly-hidden community of homeless individuals in drug houses, under bridges, and on the sidewalks needed someone to offer hope and a way out. Later that year, he met Lee Anna Letino, who brought her experience in international development, and the two established a non-profit to bring tangible resources to the homeless community.

The Stokers and volunteers began having a Thursday night family-style dinner for the homeless

community that continues today. While building relationships with the most vulnerable members of the homeless community on the streets, the

Stokers quickly realized the best way to serve this community was by offering supportive housing to help individuals transition from the streets to

permanent housing.

In 2000, First Fruit Ministries opened a transitional housing program for women who had been rescued from trafficking and had no place to heal mentally and physically. This campus grew to offer supportive housing for women and families, an outreach center with showers, a laundromat, hot meals, and a medical clinic for the homeless community, and a food pantry. Through over 25 years of ministry, the Stokers have shared countless meals with the homeless, sat with victims of assault and trafficking while they reached rock-bottom and found the courage to seek help, and found housing solutions for hundreds of men, women, and families living on the streets.

After 25 years and countless tragedies and victories, one thing remains: every person is worthy of receiving unconditional love.

Meet Rick and Lee Anna

First Fruit Ministries timeline

1998

Rick begins feeding runaway children in downtown Wilmington. This quickly grew into serving commercial sex workers, gang members, and the homeless community.

1999

Rick starts a street church for the homeless and rents a small house to care for the unsheltered during Hurricane Floyd. Rick and Lee Anna meet in September and begin developing a women’s shelter in the N. 4th Street district.

2000

Rick and Lee Anna get married and invite the first resident into their transitional housing program. Lee Anna establishes First Fruit Ministries and gains nonprofit status for the organization.

2001

The women’s transitional housing program expands to serve families as pregnant residents bring their infants home.

2002

The food pantry begins as a small grocery giveaway from the porch of the women’s shelter to residents.

2003

The City of Wilmington creates an ordinance that bans supportive housing programs from operating within a half-mile radius of each other.

2004

First Fruit purchases an abandoned strip mall near the Shipyards on the southside of Wilmington.

2005

Renovations on the Vance Street property are complete and the ministry doubles its capacity. Rick and Lee Anna welcome a daughter, Sophia.

2009

Men’s mentorship transitional home opens on Gordon Rd.

2014

Urban Missions Program is launched to train and equip people experiencing homelessness.

2015

Formally open Outreach Center with showers, a laundromat, medical clinic.

2016

FFM adds medical care to Street Outreach in partnership with MedNorth Health Center Nurse Practitioner, providing wound care, disease testing, and medical assessments in homeless camps.

2018

Hurricane Florence rips through roof and center of building; FFM re-builds Outreach Center and makes building improvements. First Fruit’s teams re-housed over 300 households of New Hanover County residents displaced by the Hurricane.

2020

All volunteers are quarantined during COVID-19 and the staff continue providing emergency services through street outreach. 5.11 House opens w/ 8 beds for human trafficking victims and 2 off-site locations for men/families and those in active addiction.