Church-sponsored food-sharing ministries spread across our region are feeding their neighbors; and now they have become a “collective,” thanks to the EPA Conference’s efforts. The Office of Connectional Ministries welcomed dozens of food ministry leaders to a first-time video-meeting on Zoom Feb. 22. No doubt others will join them when they meet again on Thursday, April 7, at 7 PM.*
EPA now has a growing roster of these leaders and their diverse, hunger-fighting ministries. The new EPA Food Pantry & Food Serve Collective will meet monthly initially as it coalesces and then perhaps bimonthly or quarterly afterward. See the directory, which expands the initial directory of food distribution centers the conference created in 2020 as part of its Coronavirus Assistance Program. Read “Church help feed their communities during coronavirus shutdown.”
Some ministries have creative, inspirational names that describe their mission: Feed My Sheep, Helping Hands, Lord’s Pantry, Garden of Grace, Shepherd’s House, Caring for Friends, and Blessings of Hope. There’s even the Pop Up Food Pantry at Berwyn UMC. Others are named by the churches or communities where they serve.
“It was a powerful evening of testimony, as we heard stories of anti-hunger work from Philadelphia to Phoenixvlle to Lancaster.” That’s how the Rev. Dawn Taylor-Storm, EPA Director of Connectional Ministries, described the first meeting. She cohosted it with Deaconess Darlene Didomineck, Executive Director at The Center in Philadelphia, at Arch Street UMC. “We plan to continue this conversation to learn more about food sourcing opportunities; grant writing possibilities and ways to partner in the future.”
Didomineck, whose program includes Arch Street UMC’s Grace Café, thought an EPA collective would be a good idea. Her program recently received a delivery of donated vegetables that was more than it and nearby food-sharing partners could handle that day. The food was in danger of spoiling.
“In a connectional system like ours there is no reason for that to happen if we had an email or text messaging listserv so we could be in ministry together,” she said. “There were probably other church pantries within a few minutes of us where I could have dropped off those vegetables.” Indeed, she said cooperation with other church pantries and food service ministries could extend also to sharing in-kind donations and training together to learn best practices and fundraising strategies.
One by one, the meeting’s participants shared basic information about their various food ministries and their personal commitment to fighting the ever-growing crisis of hunger that afflicts so many communities. Some have been in that fight for a long time; others more recently.
Annette Glover has been serving food weekly to Eastwick UMC’s neighbors in Southwest Philadelphia for two decades as director of its Mission House.
Ivan Hanes reported on Lampeter UMC’s small pantry that supplies people with food twice a week, along with the church’s monthly community meal. Plus, it shares donated food with other area churches and with food banks at Millersville University and other schools.
“I can’t express my gratitude enough for being invited to this meeting,” James Lowell, a volunteer at Bridesburg UMC’s Community Food Pantry, wrote in the Zoom chat section. His church welcomes 100-plus families weekly into its pantry to “shop” for their food, which is gathered from several sources.
“We are constantly fundraising,” he added. “It may be a yearly neighborhood flea market or our annual concert where numerous musicians donate their time and talents.
“Yeah! Let’s get together again,” Lowell wrote. “I believe that the more we interact, the more we may realize that we can help each other in ways that we are not aware of at this time.”
“I’m excited about what God might do,” said Taylor-Storm, “as we come together to share our collective wisdom and even dream about what might be possible, as we think about doing ministry in collaborative ways.” She offered to set up an online collaboration tool, using Basecamp, for the new collective’s partners to easily alert one another about food-sharing needs, resources, strategies and opportunities.
She urged participants to invite others to the Thursday, April 7, meeting and also to join the collective’s Lead Team by emailing her at dtaylorstorm@epaumc.org.
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