Jesus said, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.” When the people asked, “Lord, when did we do this? We don’t remember!” Jesus replied, “When you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to me.” This church takes seriously the Biblical mandate to feed the hungry. Several of our ministries work toward this goal. One of them is our Groceries for Seniors ministry. One Saturday every month, our volunteers bag and deliver groceries for low-income senior citizens in our community. But the work begins before that actual day! Jim and Shelley Haddon, our Outreach Team co-chairs, began this ministry several years ago. It involves a great deal of organization behind the scenes!

Shelley and Jim work to keep detailed records which must be submitted to Second Harvest Food Bank. They also remind the grocery recipients of the delivery dates through letters and phone calls. They plan the contents of the food bags to be collected from our members or purchased through Second Harvest. Two other volunteers, Buddy and Sandy Jackson, have the big task of picking up the many heavy boxes of food and bringing them to the church.

Of course, our church family generously provides food every month. The requested items might be canned meat or macaroni and cheese or canned fruit . . . whatever the items for that month, the congregation brings them and places them in baskets in the narthex. The church budget also includes funds to purchase from Second Harvest the additional food that we need.

The day of the delivery, church members gather in the Fellowship Hall at 10:00. The scene is well-organized, and church members fill the bags assembly line style with all the different foods. Then everyone divides into teams to deliver the food. The entire process takes less than two hours on that Saturday.

And what a reward it is to hear the gratitude from the recipients! Whether it is an older widower living alone, or a grandmother raising her young grandchildren, they all are grateful for the food that we provide.

We are thankful for all of those who work to make this ministry possible! If you’ve never been part of it, we always need new volunteers!