Road map


These young people literally wrote the book on food drives Text by Ryan P. Cumming


“ B


eans?” “Here.” “Corn?” “Here.” “Pasta sauce?” “Over here.” Teens and adults dodged


like graceful (and not-so graceful) dancers as cans and boxes hurtled through the air at St. John Lutheran Church, Little Suamico, Wis. Youth from the congregation were busy sorting donations for their Saturday morning food drive. Each had a type of food to sort and made div- ing catches to grab it as the activ- ity organizer, Maria Rose Belding, tossed it their way. By the end of the morning, the


youth had sorted 866 pounds of food and other donations to benefit Kingdom Come Food Pantry and the Pulaski Community Pantry. More than that, the weeks of plan- ning, publicity and learning together had helped them rediscover a sense of community among each other.


Photos by David Joel/ELCA “Tis has been a great way for


them to bond and collaborate,” said Karie Wagner, youth coordinator and director of family ministry. “It has brought the group together and made it stronger.” Youth at St. John and St. Luke


Evangelical Lutheran Church, Baltimore, piloted a new resource from ELCA World Hunger titled “Road Map to Food Drives: A By- Youth, For-Youth Guide to Feeding Communities.” Te resource draws on the talents and leadership of young people by dividing all of the tasks needed to plan and execute a meaningful food drive into six roles. Individual youth or teams take on the different roles, leading the entire food drive themselves. Te resource itself is an example


of youth leadership at work—its authors, Belding and Tariro Makoni,


Young people of St. John Lutheran Church, Little Suamico, Wis., such as Garrett Wons (at left), participate in a pilot food drive using the ELCA World Hunger resource “Road Map to Food Drives: A By-Youth, For-Youth Guide to Feeding Communities.”


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