By Rev. Meredith Jackson
This year, Isaiah 58 Ministries celebrates the success of our Thanksgiving food distribution and the gathering of the many communities that make the event possible.
First, we should celebrate our guests. This has been a year of changes as we reopened inside, debuted a new food pantry room and layout, and continued to explore the changes of a pandemic-informed ministry. It’s also been a year of growth, where we have seen unprecedented numbers of guests come through our doors. Through all of this, our guests have showed up and continued to be community for one another, and for us. We are grateful for our guests.
We also celebrate the 25+ communities and multiple individuals that intentionally participated in the Thanksgiving food distribution. Some collected food items, others sponsored milk and eggs, and still more showed up to help set up, sort, and volunteer on the day of the event. Even more are continuing to collect for our Buy-A-Bird campaign, which funds our grocery gift cards for the holidays. We are grateful for our partners in this work.
Finally, we want to celebrate the many hands and feet and hearts that worked on our distribution day. It was a long day, and at the end we had served over 230 households. Thanks to the many hands on deck, guests were invited to choose the items that worked for them from a cornucopia of available items, and all were served with the grace and love that our volunteers embody so well. We are grateful for our volunteers.
While we will now have a few days of rest, the work for the holidays is not yet done. Our Holiday Store, at the beginning of December, will invite guests to shop for gifts for their loved ones. Donations continue to be accepted through December 2, and more information can be found here.
We will also offer a Christmas food distribution, where we already have over 250 households registered to receive Christmas food.
If you would like to volunteer at the Christmas store, the Christmas food distribution, or participate in next year’s holiday collections, please contact Meredith.
