The last week of October, we got a text from a church deacon who was aware of the possible pause in SNAP benefits.

Their church was worried about the impact this would have on their neighbors and asked what we could do to respond, saying: “This is a great opportunity for the collective body of Christ to rise up and be His hands and feet in our community.”

I had an immediate flashback to COVID, when a pastor from another church showed up in our office right after the shutdown, and simply said “What are we going to do together to help our neighbors?”

THIS is what motivates us at Love. Churches, businesses, non-profits and even individuals recognizing that we can have a greater impact when we stand together.And really, this is what Love was created to do – be a collective community, create a joint, organized effort, and maximize the love of Christ that we can show to our neighbors!It was not an easy (or inexpensive) task to shift our normally inward-facing food pantry for 55 Life Skills families, to serving the general public, and trying to estimate how many would need help. Even some staff members were uneasy without having all the funds set, but we trusted that God would provide.

A few highlights:

• In less than 3 hours, over 50 brand new volunteers signed up to help pack or distribute food.
• With only a few smaller trailers in good working order, Inontime Trucking offered a truck and driver to help whenever we needed it.
• Multiple local school districts put on creative food drives, even with a professional video to get the word out!
• Harvest Stand Ministries let us borrow their box truck.
• Grandville Trailer offered to repair two of our trailers and get them back on the road!
• Meijer worked with us to order food strategically (and a lot more than they are used to us ordering!)
• Fairway Church in Jenison, Fellowship CRC in Grandville and Chapel Pointe in Hudsonville volunteered to be distribution sites – doing a ton of prep work and interacting with those who stopped for food.
• Local businesses organized their own food drives for Love.
• Faithful donors sent in additional gifts dedicated to food.
• Community members gave one-time, $60 gifts to cover a week’s worth of food for a local family and show that they were cheering us on, wanting to do their part.

Our core value of collaboration was being lived out as we acted as the hands and feet of Jesus and came together to love our neighbors.

Less than two weeks into activating food distribution, another local pastor showed up at Love with a check, and an incredible story.

Their leadership at Ridgewood decided to donate $3,000 from benevolence, but challenged their congregation to match it with a special offering. Rather than giving $3,000 to match, their congregation gave over $7,000 during the offering, creating a combined $10,000 gift from their church to help with SNAP efforts (God DOES provide)!

Our SNAP emergency response has ended, but our collaboration efforts aren’t.There are SO many unique ways God is uniting the local church through Love:

• Providing Life Skills volunteers to facilitate class or be peer supports for families working to achieve their goals.
• Watching kids so families can access free childcare while in class.Providing free meals before class so families and volunteers can build community.
• Packing weekly grocery orders.Providing funds for GoFresh cards, so families can pick up milk, fruits and veggies.
• Providing funds for gas cards, housing subsidies, and transitional housing.
• Giving free rides to community members who need to get to medical appointments.
• Serving in the donation warehouse or resale shops, (which provides over 50% of our revenue, creating sustainability and allowing us to journey long term with strong support for local families as they shift out of survival mode.)

There is still so much work to be done – and we thank God for a community that links arms with us as we continue to seek HIM and love our neighbors well.