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Get Involved |
Ideas for Churches
Whether you are new to feeding ministries or looking to build on what you already have, churches of all sizes can get involved!
Click each drop down to see how local churches are feeding the hungry. Click the icons for more resources, information on food safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, and advocacy resources.
Click each drop down to see how local churches are feeding the hungry. Click the icons for more resources, information on food safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, and advocacy resources.
Serving Meals
~ Mosaic UMC, Palm Bay FL
Mosaic has been serving meals in some capacity since it launched in January 2018. Feeding the hungry has been one of our core values. We believe that, by serving meals to those in need, we are truly being the church in a tangible way. When we had to close our doors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew that we had to become creative to continue feeding the hungry in our community. We began working with our local nonprofit partners – the South Brevard Sharing Center and the Brevard Interfaith Alliance – to distribute fresh food twice weekly via drive-through service at the church. If a local church wanted to begin a food distribution ministry, the following steps are suggested:
Mosaic has been serving meals in some capacity since it launched in January 2018. Feeding the hungry has been one of our core values. We believe that, by serving meals to those in need, we are truly being the church in a tangible way. When we had to close our doors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew that we had to become creative to continue feeding the hungry in our community. We began working with our local nonprofit partners – the South Brevard Sharing Center and the Brevard Interfaith Alliance – to distribute fresh food twice weekly via drive-through service at the church. If a local church wanted to begin a food distribution ministry, the following steps are suggested:
- Develop partnerships with local nonprofits working with the homeless or those living in poverty
- Recruit volunteers with compassionate hearts and a genuine sense of call to work with those in poverty
- Train volunteers beginning with the work of the General Board of Church and Society’s “Ministry With the Poor” initiative
- Develop a plan for distributing food
- Cook/prep team
- Distribution team
- Ministry team (offers prayer and listening ear if necessary)
- Launch ministry
Food pantries
~Sparr United Methodist Church
Feed My Sheep was started a number of years ago at Sparr United Methodist Church by Bob Mozzicato as a means to help families in need. The food mission is based on faith and driven by donations from the church members. After a few years, Feed My Sheep was moved to Anthony UMC until they decided to end the program around 2014. The Sparr congregation decided to bring Feed My Sheep back home, with the help of seed money from a couple of parishioners, but with a new twist on the distribution process.
The goal set by the food pantry committee is to provide food bags for 40 households monthly. A volunteer takes care of shopping for the items to fill the bags and then assembles 40 bags of food. Another set of volunteers picks up and packages items from Panera Bread. The food bags and Panera Bread Company pastries are set up in a shopping area along with a variety of non-perishable items for distribution every third Saturday.
On distribution day people line up at Sparr UMC where they are greeted with a prayer by volunteers and receive a bag of food filled with items to provide two days’ worth of meals. Recipients also receive the pastries from Panera, hygiene or cleaning supplies, and supplemental food items.
Continued support through monetary donations, volunteerism, non-perishable food donations and donated hygiene supplies is necessary to ensure the success of this mission.
Feed My Sheep was started a number of years ago at Sparr United Methodist Church by Bob Mozzicato as a means to help families in need. The food mission is based on faith and driven by donations from the church members. After a few years, Feed My Sheep was moved to Anthony UMC until they decided to end the program around 2014. The Sparr congregation decided to bring Feed My Sheep back home, with the help of seed money from a couple of parishioners, but with a new twist on the distribution process.
The goal set by the food pantry committee is to provide food bags for 40 households monthly. A volunteer takes care of shopping for the items to fill the bags and then assembles 40 bags of food. Another set of volunteers picks up and packages items from Panera Bread. The food bags and Panera Bread Company pastries are set up in a shopping area along with a variety of non-perishable items for distribution every third Saturday.
On distribution day people line up at Sparr UMC where they are greeted with a prayer by volunteers and receive a bag of food filled with items to provide two days’ worth of meals. Recipients also receive the pastries from Panera, hygiene or cleaning supplies, and supplemental food items.
Continued support through monetary donations, volunteerism, non-perishable food donations and donated hygiene supplies is necessary to ensure the success of this mission.
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~Hawthorne Area Resource Center
The Food Pantry at the Hawthorne Area Resource Center serves about 400 households per month. By providing food we also get to know the citizens a little better and find out about their other needs. Nikki is a mother of five who comes to the pantry only when their resources are slim. She expresses her gratitude for having a resource for healthy food. Through her coming to get food, however, we learned on one visit that she had recently given birth to a stillborn baby. Through this visit we were able to minister to her emotionally and spiritually and further establish a bond that she says she had nowhere else. God is working through our pantry in the life of this family. |
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Grocery Store Gift Cards
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Some churches engage in feeding hungry people through the distribution of grocery store gift cards. They ask their members to contribute to a fund to serve the impoverished in their community and then create ways to distribute the cards. For example, you may order Publix gift cards in bulk by calling 800-830-8159. There are discounts if you spend $3,000 or more. You may specify cards that state on them that they limit the purchase of alcohol, cigarettes and lottery tickets. Experts in feeding hungry people say that every $2.00 is equal to one meal served.
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Gleaning
~CROS Ministries
Gleaning is the traditional biblical practice of the recovery of crops that would otherwise be left in the fields to rot or be plowed under after harvest. Partnerships with local growers who allow access to fields ensure the provision of fresh fruits and vegetables that are often lacking in the diets of individuals who are food insecure.
Since people live apart from where their food is grown, gleaning requires volunteers who will bridge the gap between the fields and the feeding programs to bring food to locations where those in need can receive it. Here in Florida, through the efforts of CROS Ministries and Society of St. Andrew, as well as local food banks, the fresh produce is distributed to meal kitchens and food pantries that feed the hungry.
Gleaning is the traditional biblical practice of the recovery of crops that would otherwise be left in the fields to rot or be plowed under after harvest. Partnerships with local growers who allow access to fields ensure the provision of fresh fruits and vegetables that are often lacking in the diets of individuals who are food insecure.
Since people live apart from where their food is grown, gleaning requires volunteers who will bridge the gap between the fields and the feeding programs to bring food to locations where those in need can receive it. Here in Florida, through the efforts of CROS Ministries and Society of St. Andrew, as well as local food banks, the fresh produce is distributed to meal kitchens and food pantries that feed the hungry.
Backpack Meals
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~Lakewood United Methodist Church
Lakewood United Methodist Women participate in several missions which involve donations of food. The most time-consuming and ongoing is Pack a Sack. Every week during the school year, we purchase, pack and deliver non-perishable food items to a neighbor school with students who are mostly below the poverty level. We bag cartons of Hershey milk, cereal, apple sauce, Vienna sausages, raisins, canned fruit, peanut butter crackers, Nutri-grain bars and other varieties of foods. At the school, the counselor and aides place the bags into string backpacks for the students to take home on weekends. This can be a difference between happiness and hunger on the weekend. |
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~First Hawthorne UMC
First Hawthorne has been sponsoring these backpacks since about 2013. Initially we purchased seven rolling backpacks and filled them with food for our rural elementary school. Through this ministry children who have no food security for the weekend can fend for themselves if they must and share with siblings. We have involved the congregation by doing food drives and now one of our United Methodist Women Circles has taken on sponsorship monthly for the purchase of food in partnership with Catholic Charities.
First Hawthorne has been sponsoring these backpacks since about 2013. Initially we purchased seven rolling backpacks and filled them with food for our rural elementary school. Through this ministry children who have no food security for the weekend can fend for themselves if they must and share with siblings. We have involved the congregation by doing food drives and now one of our United Methodist Women Circles has taken on sponsorship monthly for the purchase of food in partnership with Catholic Charities.
Dinner Church
~ Rev. Sean Peters, Mosaic UMC, Palm Bay FL
Mosaic began as a meal-based worshiping community offering dinner and brunch church. Worshiping “around the table” is a wonderful way to break down walls that often separate us. At the table (especially the round table) all are equal. Meal-based worship services create space for conversation and relationship building. It is a safe space for those who may not feel comfortable in a more traditional worship service. Food becomes the unifying element for the meal-based worship service. Most often in these gatherings we see many of our poor or homeless neighbors who come for the food but, when made to feel welcome through radical hospitality, stay and become a part of the worshiping community. This is one of the most beautiful parts of being in this kind of community. A meal-based worship service can be launched by almost any size church using the following suggestions:
Mosaic began as a meal-based worshiping community offering dinner and brunch church. Worshiping “around the table” is a wonderful way to break down walls that often separate us. At the table (especially the round table) all are equal. Meal-based worship services create space for conversation and relationship building. It is a safe space for those who may not feel comfortable in a more traditional worship service. Food becomes the unifying element for the meal-based worship service. Most often in these gatherings we see many of our poor or homeless neighbors who come for the food but, when made to feel welcome through radical hospitality, stay and become a part of the worshiping community. This is one of the most beautiful parts of being in this kind of community. A meal-based worship service can be launched by almost any size church using the following suggestions:
- Form a Dinner Church team
- Cooks and food prep
- Servers
- Worship team
- Often a small band or single musician is sufficient
- Artist to offer painting during the meal (optional but powerful)
- A communicator (to share a Jesus story or sermon)
- Hospitality
- Christians who will sit at the tables and engage the guests in conversation and offer prayer and a listening ear if necessary
- Set up and Clean up
- Find a location (could be in your church or offsite at a “secular” location)
- Develop a budget
- Advertise
- Train volunteers
- Use the dinner church resources listed below
- Host a soft opening with invited guests
- Launch your service
Farm share
~First Hawthorne United Methodist Church
Farm Share delivers to the First Hawthorne UMC food pantry about every three weeks bringing fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, and an assortment of staple goods. We never know exactly what is coming our way. In addition, the Farm Share warehouse in Jacksonville often has a surplus of items and, since we have a walk-in cooler and freezer, they call and offer extra items of which our community benefits greatly. Our Farm Share distribution is at almost 700 households per month.
In addition to serving our pantry, Farm Share also offers community food distribution in cooperation with the City. Our volunteers help to pass out the food in a drive-through sort of distribution. We can serve more than 400 households at these events in just three hours.
Farm Share delivers to the First Hawthorne UMC food pantry about every three weeks bringing fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, and an assortment of staple goods. We never know exactly what is coming our way. In addition, the Farm Share warehouse in Jacksonville often has a surplus of items and, since we have a walk-in cooler and freezer, they call and offer extra items of which our community benefits greatly. Our Farm Share distribution is at almost 700 households per month.
In addition to serving our pantry, Farm Share also offers community food distribution in cooperation with the City. Our volunteers help to pass out the food in a drive-through sort of distribution. We can serve more than 400 households at these events in just three hours.
~New Life United Methodist Church
Farm Share is a non-profit organization working to ensure that food insecure Floridians receive needed help. The program alleviates hunger and malnutrition by distributing fresh and nutritious food, without any going to waste. At New Life UMC, it is not only a mission to feed families physically, but also spiritually. We distribute the food, as well as offer prayers and the invitation to worship. As a result, we have had many join the body of Christ. Our goal is to be "on mission" for God by meeting the needs for those who need help. James 2:15 states: "If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled' and you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?" (NKJV translation)
At New Life UMC, it has been our privilege to serve our community in this way.
Farm Share is a non-profit organization working to ensure that food insecure Floridians receive needed help. The program alleviates hunger and malnutrition by distributing fresh and nutritious food, without any going to waste. At New Life UMC, it is not only a mission to feed families physically, but also spiritually. We distribute the food, as well as offer prayers and the invitation to worship. As a result, we have had many join the body of Christ. Our goal is to be "on mission" for God by meeting the needs for those who need help. James 2:15 states: "If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled' and you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?" (NKJV translation)
At New Life UMC, it has been our privilege to serve our community in this way.
OTHER
~Lakewood United Methodist Church, St. Pete, FL
Small bags of food are kept on hand for hungry people who inquire at the church office. Packaged foods help to satisfy a desperate need.
Small bags of food are kept on hand for hungry people who inquire at the church office. Packaged foods help to satisfy a desperate need.
