Home Christian News As COVID Continues, Church-Run Food Pantries, Ministries Adapt and Expand

As COVID Continues, Church-Run Food Pantries, Ministries Adapt and Expand

For churches and other faith groups, sharing food is part of their DNA.

While a recent study showed that churches have lost about half of their volunteers during COVID, interest in working at the pantry at St. Anne’s remains high, with 50 or so volunteers involved on a rotating basis, said Hattan. Sometimes, he has more volunteers than he can use.

“With the food distribution, people feel they’re doing something,” he said. “There’s a need that’s being filled. They’re seeing people, looking in their eyes, helping them out. That’s good stuff,” Hattan said.

Jewitt’s involvement at the Northern Illinois Food Bank is professional, personal and spiritual. He began working at the food bank about a decade after a career in the restaurant business. He’s been both a staff person and someone who received food from the food bank — after a restaurant business he ran closed during the great recession, his family relied on groceries from a food pantry for a while.

His faith also plays a role. Jewett said that helping others is wired in the DNA of Christianity and other faiths — in his role, he works with Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups. When religious groups decide to collaborate, he said, they can do a world of good.

“It seems most of us agree that the need to help people is a common theme that everyone could work together on,” he said. “That’s been pretty awesome.”

This article originally appeared here.