Lutheran Social Services Food Pantry
Urgent needs Canned fruit Special needs Sugar-free items Coffee in small cans or jars |
To help Volunteer: All Saints regular food distribution service from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Champion Avenue pantry will be May 23. At least six volunteers are needed. Please sign up on the bulletin board in the Gathering Area. To donate: Please follow these guidelines.
For more information: Contact All Saints to be put in touch with coordinator Petey Ellinger. Monetary donations: $24 will feed a family of four for three days. To donate to the food pantries or other LSS missions, click here or submit checks payable to All Saints Lutheran Church and indicate LSS Food Pantries in the memo line. |
All Saints is seeking green thumbs for its 2008 Pantry Patch, benefiting the Lutheran Social Services Food Pantry.
What: Volunteers care for All Saints’ vegetable garden in the planter boxes adjacent to the parking lot near the church office. Volunteers take on the following tasks:
- Purchase and plant seeds and plants according to provided plans.
- Share watering and weeding tasks over the growing season.
- Harvest crops.
- Put garden “to bed” for winter.
Benefits: Our garden provides a fresh alternative to low-income families served by the food pantry. Volunteers are gratified in using their love of gardening to give healthful choices to those in need.
Reimbursement: An ELCA grant received several years ago to establish the Pantry Patch program has funds remaining to reimburse gardeners’ expenses.
To volunteer: Contact All Saints to be put in touch with Pantry Patch coordinator Betsy Rechel.
A letter from the food pantries' director
Thank you for your many donations of both food and monetary support to feed those in need. Without your support, it would be impossible to answer God’s call to “feed my sheep.” With your help, last year our four food pantries served over 137,000 people; an increase of 18.5 percent. While the need for food continues to grow, we face the challenges of finding additional support and looking for supplementary ways to make donations go farther.
Our Choice method of distribution has been well received by the community, and those we serve feel a greater sense of dignity. However, the Choice Pantry system demands a greater variety of foods so families can pick the food they want. That variety is not always available from our current suppliers, so we have developed relationships with outside food brokers. In addition to increased demands, food and delivery costs have also increased. Cash donations allow us to buy from these outside sources and make advantageous purchases.
Along with the Salvation Army, Neighborhood Services and Broad Street Presbyterian Church, we have initiated a buying cooperative that will allow us to save money and make donations go farther. We are also looking into other ways to save money while at the same time serving the increased number of people requesting assistance.
Thank you for your support in the past and thank you for what you can do to help in the future.
In His Service,
Barbara Packer
Director of Food Pantry Services
