Written by: Jane Tretiak from Hope, Cherryville

Hope Lutheran Church in Cherryville, PA, provides a community cupboard year-round.  Anyone in need is welcome to visit the church and take whatever food is available. The cupboard is filled with generous donations from our church members, and the church’s Women of Faith group organizes the donated food items and fills the cupboard.

For Lent this year, the Women of Faith asked the congregation to take a recipe and a brown grocery bag, buy the ingredients for that recipe, and return the bag with a ready-to-prepare meal. The idea was that the people in need would be able to easily make a complete meal.

This project was wonderfully received by the congregation, which provided 98 meals. The bags were checked to ensure all the recipe ingredients were included, and then the Women of Faith added a special treat to each.  They were tied with a purple ribbon and will be placed in the food cupboard, one or two at a time, until they are gone.

What began as a simple Lenten idea became an opportunity to listen for God’s call and respond together. In each bag prepared and shared, the congregation is living out Christ’s love, reminding neighbors that they are seen, cared for, and not alone.

The congregation's overwhelming generosity was deeply appreciated.  Not only did the members provide the complete meals, but they also continued to fill the collection boxes, which supply the food used to stock the community cupboard every day.  God is good!