Two months out September scavengers
Michigan church collects food each fall
L
ast September, 29 members of Lord of Life Lutheran Church, Portage, Mich., went throughout their neighborhood in pouring rain gathering items for a food pantry. Despite the weather, they
collected 1,000 pounds in their little red wagons. Joan M. Herbon, pastor, hopes when they do the same thing the Saturday after Labor Day 2011 (Sept. 10), it will be their best year yet. Their “Scavenger Hunt for Food: Food from our Neighbors, for our Neighbors” is in its fourth year. Teams go out with a list of needed food items. Each item has a value assigned to it: canned vegetables, 1 point; hearty soups, 5 points; peanut butter or canned meat, 10 points; roll of toilet paper, 6 points. Later they gather back at the church, where points from each team are added up. Members of the winning team get their names on a little red wagon, which serves as a sort of “traveling trophy.” Prior to the scavenger hunt, the church distributes fliers through- out the neighborhood so people are ready with items and are more willing to open their doors to the visitors. Herbon’s confidence for this year is buoyed because the church’s new Boy Scout troop is helping distribute the fliers and gather food. “We’ve got some young legs helping out this year,” she said, adding that a Brownie troop just contacted the church to rent space. “Yes, but not for money,” Herbon told them. “We’d love to have you. We’ll find something we can do together.” Herbon said heavy-hitting evangelism doesn’t work nearly as well as this subtle way of expressing Lord of Life’s presence and care in the community. Worship times are listed on the flier, and those going door-to-door have the chance to say they’re from Lord of Life. Herbon said neighbors know it immediately: “Oh, isn’t that the church on the corner with the big garden?” Food goes to Loaves and Fishes, a Kalamazoo, Mich., food bank.
Herbon (
pastorjoanh@att.net) said the church chose September for the scavenger hunt because food banks are often low on goods in the fall before the holiday (November and December) rush.
And in Ohio ...
Zion Lutheran, Hamilton, Ohio, has seized on another September idea they believe other congregations can duplicate. The sec- ond Sunday of the month is Pet Memorial Day, according to the National Association of Pet Cemeteries. As part of the church’s “Tails from God” pet ministry, they held a pet memorial service last year and will do the same this year. The service included time to share memories. Participants also received wildflower seeds to
After members of Lord of Life Lutheran Church, Portage, Mich., gather food from the neighborhood, the children—like Jessie Wile (left), Cora Mitchell, Michele LeRud, Ian Freshwater and Jake Wile—com- pete to spell out the church’s name using the food. “We wear our LOL T-shirts on the scavenger hunt,” said Joan Herbon, pastor. “LOL: Lord Of Life, Laugh Out Loud, Labor Of Love, Lutherans On the Loose!”
plant in memory of their pets.
“It was an emotional and healing event,” said Karen Conklin, Tails from God coordinator (
dktconklin@gmail.com). “There is a need for people to express their grief with other animal lovers. Most of the participants mentioned how the lack of understanding by some of their friends adds to their grief. ... Ani- mals are gifts from God.”
Good one! Rescuing bread St. Michael Lutheran
Church, Roseville, Minn.,
feeds the hungry by using what would oth- erwise be thrown away. Three nights each week, members go to Panera Bread at clos- ing time to collect leftover bread, bagels and rolls. Since the food shelf requires proper packaging, church members bag and label the bread before dropping it off at the Fair- view Community Center.
Hundreds of pounds of baked goods are put to use each week that would otherwise be tossed out.
Send congregational stories—both those for a specific month/holiday or your best timeless idea—to
julie.sevig@
thelutheran.org. July 2011 39
PHOTODISC
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