Volunteers feed elderly and those in need
Published 10:10 am Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Volunteers gathered at St. John’s Lutheran Church to prepare meals delivered throughout the Farmville community for Thanksgiving (photo by Morgan White).
Volunteers prepare meals delivered on Thanksgiving at St. John’s Lutheran Church as part of, “Feeding Farmville.” (Photo by Morgan White.)
St. John’s Lutheran Church headed, “Feeding Farmville,” on Thanksgiving — a community project that fed more than 600 people through meals that were delivered by volunteers.
“We’re very well aware that there are people in the community that need help,” said St. John’s Lutheran Church pastor Matt Sorenson.
He said one of the two groups of people they’re serving are the elderly, “they don’t have family in the area or they’re home alone or even families.”
“We’ve got one family we’re feeding 14 meals to, they just don’t have the resources to provide Thanksgiving,” Sorenson said. “So we wanted to get as many people as we can to experience the love of God. God has blessed us so we want to bless other people.”
He said there were more than 600 people who were going to be blessed, “not only with food… but they have somebody coming to their home who’s going to take a few minutes to talk to them, learn their name, ask them about what’s going on in their life and say a prayer for them.”
He said for him the food was just the tip of the iceberg.
“The bigger blessing is that somebody’s going to come into their house and say, ‘look I care about you and it’s great to see you and God cares about you too,’” Sorenson said. “I think that’s really impactful. Not only are we going to bless 650 people with food and some time tomorrow, but there are 400 volunteers in our community who are experiencing the love of God because they’re sharing with all these people.”
He said there were approximately 30 churches in the community that provided people and pumpkin pies.
“The hospital has donated supplies, (KFC) donated (containers), Walmart, you name it,” Sorenson said. “There are 30 companies in our community that have donated to make this happen. The impact is just all over the place.”
He said he could tell people that there were, “Over a thousand people that are being touched by God’s hand in some fashion in a community of what, 5,000?”
“So it’s 20 percent of the community that either God is working through them to provide or God is providing to them. I think it’s just awesome,” Sorenson said. “No individual could do this on their own.”
