I wanted to give a quick update on our COVID-19 Grocery Mission since many of you that are not church members have helped or donated!
For those of you who don’t know, we sent home flyers in the bags of food that we usually send out to those on the Backpack Program. This flyer offers grocery assistance for anyone who needs it. Thankfully, the school has been delivering meals to these students each day and that has allowed the information to be spread to those families who are in need of assistance during this time.
In four days, we have served 28 families – 130 people in total here at the church. They fill out a form online, schedule a pick-up time, pull up to the front, we throw the bags in, and they drive off. We have also been able to support the Free Little Pantry and Life Ministries.
At the beginning of the week, we purchased over $400 worth of food from the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank in preparation for closures, and then spent another $100 completing what we need to make meals out of the groceries.
At $500 that comes out roughly $17 per family and $3.85 per person for an entire weeks worth of food. The picture below is what we were able to put into the bags this week. We still have extra to use for next week, and that doesn’t include what we’ve donated outside of here. My guess is we are looking at roughly $10 per family and $1.50-$2.00 per person.
Since Monday, members of our church and members of our community have donated another $480 and for that I am so very thankful and proud. We promise to continue to provide weekly groceries to these families until school is back in session- which is now April 17th! We already have another pickup scheduled at the Food Bank for more supplies.
If you’d like to help out with this, the best way to give right now is to our Missions Fund here at the church. Here is the link for that:
https://pgmethodist.breezechms.com/form/donatetomissions
Lastly, huge shoutout to Arkansas Egg Company who donated 150 dozen eggs for us to pass out and has promised to continue to supply us with eggs until school is back in session.
Sorry for the length of this update, but we want to be completely transparent with what we are doing with the money donated, how we as A COMMUNITY (not just our church) are providing for those in need, and how thankful I am for every prayer, donation, gift, etc. that has been given to those who need it! Keep it up, PG. You THRIVE in times like this!
-BG
