After many months of planning and preparation, we are on the verge of launching the St. Alban’s Food Pantry in collaboration with the Capital Area Food Bank! Our inaugural pantry will take place on Thursday, June 25, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., and we plan to continue to give away food from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. every Thursday thereafter.
This is where you come in: Every St. Albanite between the ages of 5 and 105 is heartily encouraged to make volunteering in the Food Pantry a regular part of your schedule, so please consider whether you might be called to serve once a year, once a quarter, once a month or once a week.
Volunteer opportunities fall into 3 categories:
- Set-Up will take place from roughly 2 p.m.to 3 p.m. and will require 3 volunteers who are comfortable with some heavy lifting. This will involve moving produce and pantry staples from pallets delivered by the Food Bank to tables in Trenbath, and getting everything organized for our shoppers (a term meant to convey respect to those who patronize our pantry, though our food won’t cost them a dime!)
- Welcoming and Food Distribution will take place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and will require 20 volunteers with no heavy lifting whatsoever. This involves 30 minutes of organization/orientation followed by 1.5 hours of welcoming shoppers and helping them to navigate our system. We will have 12 tables arrayed around Trenbath, and shoppers will be invited to take a certain number of items from each table: a volunteer might stand behind a table of boxes of pasta and invite each shopper to take one box, or might stand behind a table heaping with okra and invite shoppers to take as much as they can possibly use. We will also have volunteers to welcome shoppers, offer them bottles of water, and perhaps a particularly authoritarian volunteer or two to manage the line.
- Clean-Up will take place from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. and will require 3 volunteers to move undistributed food items to refrigerated or closet storage and do a bit of sweeping. This role will require some heavy lifting.
A volunteer may sign up for any one or more of these shifts on a given Thursday. The only qualification you need to volunteer is a heart open to serving others in the name of Christ.
To put yourself down for a shift or shifts from June 25th through the end of August, please use the simple link below. It will ask you to pick your shifts and then give your name and email address. After this you will be all signed-up. Just arrive at the beginning of the shift and we’ll cover all that you need to know during each shift’s orientation period.
But, you may be saying: ‘I live a life full of obligations, why would I want to give up the odd Thursday evening to this project?’ Let’s hear from noted social commentator the Lord Jesus Christ:
Matthew 25:31-41
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’
Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
This is the work that Jesus calls you to, come and feed Him through feeding His people.