St. John’s Episcopal Church is located in downtown Lafayette, Indiana, and maintains three direct opportunities of service to help alleviate food insecurity in our community of Tippecanoe County (population about 200,000). Communicants at St. John’s support these efforts by praying, volunteering at the different sites, and donating money and goods. Working with the Lafayette Food Finders Food Bank (an outreach of the Feeding America program) in Lafayette, Indiana, the three sites include Food Finders Food Bank, the local pantry at our church, and the Fowler Apartments in downtown Lafayette.
At the Food Finders Food Bank Distribution Center, members of our congregation collectively and/or individually sort foods, work in the office to distribute goods, help in gathering and/or packaging of items for distribution, and so forth.
On the ground floor of St. John’s is an area designed for outreach programs. In partnership with the Lafayette Urban Ministry, the Protein Pantry serves the community each Thursday with the distribution of fresh produce, meat, and paper products to qualified individuals.
The Fowler Apartments house senior citizens and people with disabilities. After an individual living there has registered with Food Finders, the agency puts together a large box of requested items for this person. On the fourth Friday of each month, a van from Food Finders comes to the apartments, and volunteers from St. John’s personally deliver the boxes to the clients.
The Sunday Community Lunch is a prepared midday meal for persons living in our neighborhood, some of whom live in local shelters. Between 60 and 120 persons are served at this meal held at the Ray Ewry Center in Lafayette. St. John’s takes turns with other neighborhood churches, normally serving three or four times in a year. We plan and prepare, serve, and afterward clean up the meal and serving areas. Our Parish Outreach Fund helps offset the cost of this ministry.
Hospitality Meals are available for persons who come to the church in need of a quick meal. (We keep no cash on hand with which to purchase individual meals.) These meals are located in the parish kitchen so any staff member or parishioner can access them for distribution as needed. The Youth Group prepares and replenishes the stock of meals as needed. Each meal consists of packaged meats, cheeses, fruit, pudding cups, crackers, bottled water, napkins, and plastic utensils. Our Parish Outreach Fund covers the cost.
What are the gifts received from these ministries? The gifts are received on both sides: feelings of joy, a sense of fellowship, and the development of meaningful relationships. The recipients realize they are not alone and that people care about them. Helping people with food insecurity also allows them to stretch their limited income.
What are the challenges? The backbone of these ministries are volunteers—more will always be welcomed! Even though the pandemic has made people hesitant to step forward to serve, St. John’s is blessed with a wonderful group of volunteers who go forth to serve our Lord.
Submitted by Charlene Watson