Village Harvest

A sermon by the Rev. Evan Garner highlighted why Church food ministries are so important in our time:

“Because feeding them is our job. As followers of Jesus, it is our calling to feed these people, indeed to feed all hungry people. The kind of people who left their homes to walk out into the wilderness and hike up a mountain to see Jesus are the kind of people who were desperate to be fed. Some of them may not have needed physical nourishment, but most of them did. For most of them, their spiritual crisis was born out of an economic crisis. We know that because usually the kind of people who had enough on their own weren’t very interested in Jesus. The rich and the powerful ignored him or laughed at him or, sometimes, plotted against him.”

“It is our job as the leaders of the church, as the stewards of the resources entrusted to us by God and by our parish, to count costs and estimate resources. But it is never our job as the people of God to allow an attitude of scarcity to overcome a theology of abundance. “

The Village Harvest addresses the Food Insecurity issue in surrounding counties and is one our key ministries. The definition of Food insecure is “those households who not have access, at all times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members.”

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Psalm 107:37 “And sow fields and plant vineyards, And gather a fruitful harvest.”

The Village Harvest celebrated its 9th anniversary and began its 10th year in November. The October, 2014 newsletter read as follows “In an effort to make fresh food more available to those in our area in need of food, the ECW is going to head up a new project.” Credit goes to Eunice Key for conceiving the name “Village Harvest.”

St Peter’s provides an opportunity for people in the area to come get fresh produce, meat, and assorted non-perishable items on the third Wednesday of each month.   The offerings change from month to month, depending on what’s available at the food bank. 

Thanks to the generosity of St Peter’s, not only are we able to provide food, but Catherine has also been able to use her discretionary fund to help these people in other ways.  

Over the past 9 years, we have distributed 121,795 pounds of food  to 11,010 people which equates to 11.1 pounds per person. The earlier years were lower at under 9 pound per person with 2018 onward being over 12 pounds.

November, 2023 was a spectacular month serving 110 people, the largest number since Jan, 2022 with 115. The pounds provided were 1,270 second largest in 2023 behind April, 2023 at 1,365.

During the first  11 months of 2023, we fed 951 people compared to 970 in the previous year during the same period.  The amount of food provided is lower in 2023 than 2022 – 12,516 pounds for 2023 compared to 13,834 for 2022. Pounds per person, were also lower in 2023 at 13.16 compared with 14.26 in the previous year

2023 does not compare well with 2022 and other years due to the poor first quarter of 2023. In the first quarter of 2023 (Jan-March), we served 218 people compared to 296 in 2022 and 295 in 2021. Food available followed a similar pattern: 2,913 pounds in 2023 and 4,196 in 2022 and 4,342 in 2021.