When the pandemic hit, schools closed, businesses laid off employees, the economy crashed and we knew there were neighbors in need as a result. We also knew that Christ Trinity had not budgeted for a pandemic! We also quickly figured out that none of our usual ways, like church suppers, could help since we couldn't even gather in a kitchen together safely to make meals for delivery.
As we heard of the growing needs in our community voiced by people in the schools, healthcare, elder services and other non-profit partners, we also heard the voices of people inside and outside of our church desperate to find a way to help their neighbors in this horrible time. In what was a very short amount of time, those disconnected puzzle pieces miraculously came together to form a crazy plan.
Let’s ask our neighbors in the community to join us in sponsoring meals for school families in need and partner with The Marketplace along the school’s food service department for safe production and delivery of those meals.
The school told us they had 65 families that could use a Friday meal. We told the community and all 65 were immediately sponsored for the first full week of the program! We asked the community to do it again and they did it again. Again and again and again you did it! Berkshire United Way heard what we were doing and asked us to apply for a grant to ensure those meals would keep being delivered for 10 full weeks. We received $15,000 to keep the program going with the understanding that if we had enough community sponsors for school meals, we could use grant money to expand our reach and buy meals for Seniors prepared by John Andrews Restaurant. We always had enough community sponsors!
In the meantime other individuals from both next door and literally from around the world heard what we were doing and sent in financial contributions. This money raised would be all we had to fund the project after the grant money ran out. After that grant ran out we looked at the fund and to our amazement we had $17,000 in the bank! More than we had when we first received the grant! We were ready to fund another ten weeks!
Now we have ended that second ten weeks. In these twenty weeks our community has called into The Marketplace to sponsor 1,195 school meals, each of which contained four servings of delicious and nutritious food. In addition to those incredible sponsorships we've used over $27,000 in grant money and contributions to expand our reach over the last twenty weeks.
Together we have delivered an incredible 8,350 servings of food to school families and seniors struggling with food insecurity and isolation caused by this pandemic!
We fully expected that at this point we would really be completely out of money, but the Holy Spirit seems to have had something else in mind! Over Labor Day weekend with the help of new musical friends we produced a socially distanced fundraising concert. For our musicians this was the first paying job they had since March! After we had paid all our expenses and counted the generous sponsorships, contributions, and box office receipts, our little concert had raised $8,919.55!
As we went to deposit that unbelievable amount into our Feeding Sheffield Fund (which should have been completely drained at that point) we found that there was still over $9,000 remaining in that fund! Even when we weren’t looking, you and our neighbors had continued to be generous, constantly sending in contributions all along!
Can you believe it? After starting with no idea how to help and without a single dime, this amazing community has pulled together to deliver 8,350 meals to our neighbors and because of your generosity we still have over $18,000 in the bank ready to tackle whatever comes next!
We are all well aware that this pandemic is far from over. We know the need in our community continues. With in-person classes returning, however, the way we’ve done Feeding Sheffield for the last six months is changing and we don’t yet know how these next puzzle pieces we’ve been given will fit together going forward. But with your amazing generosity, faithfulness, trust and a somewhat crazy willingness to go where the Holy Spirit blows, I know we will quickly find, and just as quickly meet whatever challenge comes next. Together we will love our neighbors all the way to the other side of this pandemic and beyond!
Pastor Erik+
