February marks the 2-year anniversary of the food pantry, and we have some astounding numbers to share. In 2010, we averaged 70 families per month and served 3100 people total with the helping hands of 30 volunteers who gave 180 volunteer hours each month. An amazing 36,000 pounds of food were shared in 2010! Since our beginnings two years ago, 580 different families have received food through our pantry and we have served 6020 people all together. For Thanksgiving and Christmas, in addition to normal food boxes, 110 holiday baskets have been gifted.
But these numbers are not just numbers! They represent real human faces and families, hard-working hands and hours of life given in selfless and joyful service. They reflect smiles and offers of hospitality, hearts affected by kindness, and new friendships forming because of read human connection. They count just a few of the little lights of Christ that are walking around this world. When we all gather in Hilson Hall on a third Saturday, or when backs bend to lift cans or fill boxes as others zoom around, hard at work, those little lights come together and create a larger blaze that warms us all. Let us give thanks for each belly that is fed, for each set of feet that is welcomed in, for each smiling or crying child, for each hand that reaches out to wave, to give, to receive, to hug, to lift in prayer. And let us give thanks to the One who created all of us and invites us to keep coming together. This pantry has been a gift and many thanks are given for your participation in it. May we have the energy and determination to keep seeking God and one another, to continue to ask, "What's next? How are you calling us to respond now?"
But these numbers are not just numbers! They represent real human faces and families, hard-working hands and hours of life given in selfless and joyful service. They reflect smiles and offers of hospitality, hearts affected by kindness, and new friendships forming because of read human connection. They count just a few of the little lights of Christ that are walking around this world. When we all gather in Hilson Hall on a third Saturday, or when backs bend to lift cans or fill boxes as others zoom around, hard at work, those little lights come together and create a larger blaze that warms us all. Let us give thanks for each belly that is fed, for each set of feet that is welcomed in, for each smiling or crying child, for each hand that reaches out to wave, to give, to receive, to hug, to lift in prayer. And let us give thanks to the One who created all of us and invites us to keep coming together. This pantry has been a gift and many thanks are given for your participation in it. May we have the energy and determination to keep seeking God and one another, to continue to ask, "What's next? How are you calling us to respond now?"
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