Chruches band together to collect food for needy, youth on ‘Day of Service’

On September 26, hundreds of volunteers across our local communities gathered to help their neighbors in a Day To Serve.

But planning for the service had begun months earlier and involved intense coordination. Ken and Fran Gardner of Gainesville were project managers for the 11 area LDS congregations.

Says Ken, “Although there are lots of details, the part I enjoy most is to be associated with the hundreds of volunteers,” adding that out of the planning, “five meaningful projects emerged that benefited many needy families residing in our neighborhoods.”

Joe E. Dionne, President of the Centreville Virginia Stake (similar to a Dioceses) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stated, “To broaden our reach for good, we attempted to partner our efforts with other faith-based groups. And what we learned in the process is that we really have much more in common than any differences.”

If the accumulated food and monetary donations of the projects are an indication then much good has come of the efforts. Two Latter-day Saint congregations collaborated with the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Warrenton to put together 50,000 meals to be distributed to food relief organizations in Fauquier County.

A Centreville congregation of the LDS Church and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community partnered to create 1,500 Power Packs for children in need. These were donated to the non-profit, Food For Others, who will make the packs available to Fairfax County Schools which distributes them to at-risk elementary schools throughout the school year.

Two Manassas Latter-day Saint congregations partnered with the Catholic Diocese of Arlington for a food drive that benefitted the St Lucy Project, headed by Catholic Charities. Another was a project designed to help local food banks raise enough food to deliver 600 Thanksgiving dinners to families for this coming holiday.

“The donated food was then taken to the Gainesville meetinghouse of the LDS Church and assembled into kits that will be delivered to local food banks where they will be provided to families in need during the holiday,” said Cindy Lake, one of the Gainesville area coordinators.

Lee Ann Renfro, one of the volunteers who helped collect food donations at the Safeway in Bristow told of her experience.

“I came to see what good we can do with just a little effort. At the store entrance we handed out cards with suggested grocery items for the Thanksgiving baskets. And at one point I, too, entered the store to buy some donation items. While walking around pushing my basket I noticed people earnestly looking down at the cards we had handed out and I could tell that they were eager to help. Perfect strangers who had one thing in common: doing something kind for someone else.”

When asked about the ends results Ken Gardner noted, “Often the giving is anonymous and we rarely get a chance to meet those helped by the efforts. But today outside a local supermarket a man approached me and said that he had been assisted by the donations we had facilitated in previous years. He thanked me and said he hoped to be in a better position soon so that he too could help another in need.”

Cindy Lake’s assignment was to coordinate the collections at stores.

“I just couldn’t believe that some customers would go into the store for one item for themselves and then donate entire bags of groceries for our food drive as they exited,” she said.

Two high school students, Mali Smith and Whitney Thomas organized a youth group who collected donations at the Giant in Manassas.

“The most awesome thing was the increased youth participation. We had more than 15 youth who joined us who hadn’t even signed up to help. It is cool to see how the word gets out and people want to join in to help.” Mali Smith added, “We learned that when we are serving together we all feel good about ourselves, it helps us see that there are bigger issues in the world than things that may be bothering us personally at the moment.”