With your support

we can offer hope and a home to the most vulnerable members of the homeless community in Wilmington: those suffering from trauma, substance abuse, mental illness, or enduring a life of human trafficking. 


How does your gift change lives?

  • Our Street Outreach meets people living on the streets and offers a warm meal and caring friendship
  • Our Outreach Center meets the basic needs of homeless and trafficked people with hot meals, showers, clean laundry, clothing and supplies, and housing navigation 
  • Our Housing programs offer a safe home for victims to recover and rebuild their lives


Become a WayMaker

Make a Legacy Gift

We provide holistic solutions that rescue victims from their traffickers, move people from the streets into housing, and bring healing to wounded souls. For over 25 years, First Fruit Ministries has grown to provide vulnerable members of our community with a sense of home on our campus—offering a deep sense of belonging to people living on the streets. As homelessness and trafficking grow rapidly in our city, we must push further into the streets and dark places to offer hope and restoration. Together, we can offer healing and housing to the most vulnerable members of our community. 


LEGACYMAKERS are a group of givers who fund sustainable growth and build the capacity of First Fruit Ministries to transform lives for the next 25 years to come. If you’re interested in becoming a LegacyMaker by building new housing, expanding our campus, and growing our endowment fund, contact us today! FFM is fully equipped to receive stocks, gifts from trusts and planned giving. 


Call or email us at info@firstfruitministries.org to set up a meeting.

Donate Here

How Your legacy gift changes lives

Permanent Housing

We are dreaming big. on the property adjacent to our Vance Street Outreach campus, we’ll create a village of cottages for the most vulnerable members of the homeless community: homeless families with children who struggle with co-occurring mental health, substance abuse, and behavioral health challenges.


The Cottages at First Fruit will be an 8-home community where homeless families will have a permanent place to call home. For many clients, accepting help without trusting relationships is impossible. 


Additionally, FFM will construct studio apartments for chronically homeless single individuals to enjoy the campus community. This privately-funded housing 

community will serve those who need housing desperately. This housing will be offered at a small fraction of the market rate.

Re-building 5.11 House

While construction begins at the Cottages at First Fruit, our main campus will undergo an expansion: we'll relocate our on-campus housing currently in the Vance Street building into spaces that are more residential in design, featuring large windows, private bathrooms, and private meeting spaces for therapy services. This new wing of housing will be dedicated to serving victims of human trafficking with 6-9 months of transitional housing, support, and recovery services.

Crisis Response Housing

We’ll expand The Guest House, our 24/7 crisis response shelter for interpersonal violence and human trafficking victims.

On-campus medical clinic

In partnership with MedNorth, we’ll expand our medical clinic from two days to five days a week to offer primary medical and dental care to our clients.

Campus improvements

To build capacity in our organization and grow the reach of our housing and outreach programs, we'll build a second-story of administrative offices on the back side of our building, and expand our food pantry, kitchen, and outreach center to serve double the number of clients.

Client stories

Our team met Jeff as he was living in a tent in the woods, he only had one leg and was laying in his own filth. He had not left his tent in a long time. Jeff was depressed and it was as if a dark cloud was hanging over him. Jeff did not want to interact with our team or leave his tent. At one point he had lost his prosthetic leg and was getting around with a broken scooter. As our team brought meals to Jeff and built a relationship with him, he began to trust us and open up. Over time we were able to connect with Jeff and learn his story. As we built trust with Jeff, he then felt comfortable to come to our day shelter and participate in our services. Then we were able to help him obtain a new prosthetic leg, a new scooter, and help with his finances. Jeff was eventually placed in a facility where he could live independently while receiving assistance. He is now thriving and has a better quality of life.

We have a client that comes to our day shelter, we will call him Ray. Ray has a traumatic brain injury and is addicted to alcohol. Due to his brain injury and alcoholism, he can be difficult to work with at times. Also being on the streets has inhibited Ray from obtaining the help that he needs to access his disability benefits. However our team patiently worked with Ray so he could apply to receive his Social Security benefits. This has impacted Ray’s life in a positive way because now he has access to funds to sustain a life for himself.


When you become a Waymaker, Ray is able to get the assistance he needs at First Fruit Ministries.

Donate Here
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