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- The Food Pantry at St. John Lutheran Church in Joliet, Ill., is a partner of the Northern Illinois Food Bank. At least 100 volunteers from St. John work at the mobile food pantry, which helped feed more than 20,000 people in 2013.
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- Hosanna’s Pantry is operated by Hosanna Lutheran Church in Rochester, Minn. The food pantry is open on the fourth Saturday of each month from 9 to 11:30 a.m. in the church’s gathering area. In 2013, the pantry helped meet the short-term food needs for almost 300 families.
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- On the third Saturday of every month, volunteers from Bethel Lutheran Church in Chicago participate in the Taste and See Ministry, a coalition of neighborhood congregations that provides weekly meals for neighbors in need. The ministry, started by a member of Bethel, was inspired by Psalm 34:8.
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- Donations to ELCA World Hunger help lift people out of poverty and hunger through sustainable development projects like these gardens at the Lutheran church in El Jardin, Costa Rica. Thanks to ELCA World Hunger, Nehemias Rivera Medina and his neighbors learn about crop rotation, soil fertility and plants.
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- Members of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Des Moines, Iowa, tend to their Faith Garden, located at the home of their pastor, Bob Spiers. The food they raise is donated to the Des Moines Area Religious Council Food Warehouse. As of September, the St. John’s garden volunteers had delivered more than 400 pounds of produce to help feed those who are hungry.
More than 800 million people in our world are chronically hungry and cannot lead active daily lives. In the United States, more than 50 million people do not know where their next meal will come from. ELCA members, called to do God’s work in the world, respond to this need in many ways. By serving their neighbors near and far, ELCA members are helping to make a difference in the fight against hunger and poverty.
