A volunteer observed that our regular clientele list is growing every month. Sure, we get the emergency situations, like the family who came today because their home burned down in a fire this past weekend, but a growing group of people need food to supplement the groceries they can afford on a regular basis. Most seem to be working very hard just to get by. Some carry multiple jobs to make it work.

At a leadership level, our church is beginning to plan a shift to more needs-based outreach. I call it ‘boots-on-the-ground’ ministry because it comes alongside of those who need it at their point of need. It’s very practical. Churches do a lot of ministry that is self-perpetuating and there’s nothing wrong with programs that build up your people, however, we need to do more than simply meet the needs of those we already care for. That there are more and more needs to meet around us is apparent. We have no lack of people to serve.

When I arrived here a little more than four years ago, through our deacons’ ministry, we used gas and grocery gift cards to provide for people who asked for help. We discovered that we were going through our entire benevolence budget in the first three months of the year and, therefore, were unable to help others very much as the year progressed. We struggled to find a better way to really help. As it turned out, in some cases we weren’t helping at all. Through some addiction counseling, I discovered that several people who received our cards were selling them to pay for drugs here in the community. We definitely didn’t want to contribute to the epidemic heroin problem that we, like many towns in Pennsylvania, have been experiencing. We needed a better way.

Our food pantry, officially named “The Deacon’s Cupboard”, was born of one woman’s interest in caring for the poor. From that idea, a group of interested people came together and we started to discuss how we could meet the need for food without enabling dependence or poor behavior. Because of my previous experience with the Pennsylvania Food Bank, I knew that food was available in large quantities for pennies on the pound. When I introduced the idea, our kitchen leaders seized on the opportunity to use food in their ministry as an outreach.

Our Kitchen Team held several breakfasts and dinners that were promoted in the community, hoping to attract some who really needed a free meal. At breakfasts, food was offered on a suggested donation basis but many tickets were given away. The most effective idea to emerge that year was serving a meal prior to our summer kids program on Wednesday evenings. We had recently found out that many of the children in our community were going hungry in the summer when the school meals program was not in play. So, we offered a meal to parents and families who brought their kids in to the club meetings. They could come and eat with their children, leave them with us at the church for 90 minutes while they ran errands or did shopping, and then come back to pick them up afterwards. It was a church community  effort and many pitched in. That summer, we averaged about 77 at meals. We ran that program for two summers. Currently, the local school district, realizing the same need, started offering the same meals in the summer break as they did during the school year.

Eventually, the food pantry, which began as a few shelves of food we could share with people who came to ask, grew into a once-monthly open doors opportunity for people to come for groceries. From a few shelves, we’ve overflowed into two rooms and a freezer. Sometimes, we have to store extra food or paper and hygiene products in other spaces as we simply don’t have the room in the pantry area. The kitchen freezer and commercial fridge also get drafted to hold the frozen meat we can’t fit in our own freezer, as well as fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs, and milk. This month it was frozen blueberries. Bags and bags of them. Good nutrition is a focus in the ordering of the food by Lynn and Dianne, our leaders. Often, food is placed out for people to try from our pantry offerings and sometimes a crock pot, cooking with a sample recipe, lets people taste a meal prepared with ingredients they can take with them along with the directions for preparation. The pantry is volunteer run, mostly by seniors, and they do an amazing job. Sometimes, a glimmer of future possibilities emerges as a consumer or two begins to help out when we are busy.

In addition to, and supplementing the pantry, is our Bread Ministry. Donnie, a young man from our church, worked for many years with a regional grocery chain. He noticed that bread nearing its expiry date was returned to the central store and often went to waste. Some was being fed to pigs while local people were hungry. So, he asked if he could have some to give away. Since then, hundreds of loaves of bread, along with bagels and sweets have been given away, amounting to thousands of dollars’ worth of assistance. Donnie has since developed contacts in the wholesale food industry and we have benefited from hundreds of pounds of potatoes, bananas, yams, and more. He collects far more than we can use, so he takes them to other food distribution sites such as a storefront church in town, the local shelter, a free lunch ministry, and another church distributing food in the mountains on Blue Ridge Summit.

We continue to wrestle with how to best serve the poverty needs of our community, as I’m sure every church does. We are discussing other ways to be more effective at providing for the genuine needs right outside our doorstep. To meet some spiritual needs, we are talking about having someone available specifically to pray with people who would appreciate it. We are looking for ways to develop friendships beyond a once-a-month giver/receiver relationship. We are beginning to ask questions like, “How do we assimilate people from the pantry into our church community?” “Do we expand to twice a month or more?” “How do we do our ministry and provide dignity for all who come?” “Can we assist people who don’t have insurance to get some?” “Can we help them with job searches?” I’m sure we’ll come to some helpful conclusions as we continue to dialogue.

The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, demonstrates a genuine concern for the poor. We are both encouraged and commanded as God’s people not to ignore these needs but to care for them, and we will do so as long as we have the ability and resources to do so. It takes time, trial-and-error, and a great deal of work to discover how to do this best. God helping us, we continue to serve and to do a better job as we go along.

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”  1 John 3:17-18