Thank you and Merry Christmas to everyone who helped provide food to the Church of Peace food pantry program. We were able to fill 42 large boxes of assorted foods!! I wanted to highlight and give special thanks to the Gustafson family, the Lee family, and the Wehrheim family for volunteering their time to collect and sort the food we received during our mass collection day on Saturday, December 12th! A special thanks goes to Pam Edwards for helping to coordinate the event and requesting a Thrivent card which was used to purchase 24 half hams and 30 loaves of bread!
The Rock Island HyVee was able to provide reduced prices on foods we had requested which was purchased through the budgeted amount for the Christmas Baskets. We were able to purchase an array of foods for $239.10. Thanks goes out to the Anderson/Stambaugh family for picking those items up from the store.
It took three cars to transport the donated food to the pantry. Thanks goes out to Pam Edwards, Pastor Lee, Nena Myers, Art Renfro, Jane and Dennis Woodward for packing up the food, delivering, and unloading! This was delivered on Friday, December 18th. The Church of Peace volunteers were greatly astounded by the generosity of First Lutheran. This year they have seen a significant increase of families in need of food, providing to about 75-129 families.
A monetary donation will also be given to the Church of Peace food pantry. We were able to provide them with close to four hundred dollars! A check will be sent to the church later this month. The money will be used to purchase needed food that will be disbursed to families within our community.
Thank you for your monetary donation, food donation, and volunteering your time to help support our community. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Kristin Stambaugh, Service Chair