By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star
http://www.kansascity.com
Anita Foertsch chose to spend part of her 39th anniversary Saturday helping off-load 21 tons of potatoes from a truck that had hauled them from Wisconsin.
But she didn’t see it as much of a sacrifice. Foertsch and dozens of other volunteers who worked at Prairie Baptist Church in Prairie Village were answering a biblical call to use the gleanings from harvested fields as offerings to the poor and needy.
“We have a lot of fortunate people and a lot of hungry people,” Foertsch said. “And you can’t turn down the gift of free potatoes.”
After volunteers pulled more than 4,000 bags of potatoes off the truck and put them into waiting pickups and trailers, they drove them to 20 community kitchens, pantries and service centers throughout the metropolitan area.
That contribution is desperately needed, said Donetta Shaner, who helped organize the event for St. Andrew Christian Church of Olathe, Hillcrest Christian Church in Overland Park and Prairie Baptist.
“You hear all the time that more and more people are going to pantries and food kitchens because they can’t make it from payday to payday,” Shaner said.
Ellen Feldhausen, director of communications for the Harvesters food bank, confirmed Shaner’s perception. Requests for food assistance from the 620 nonprofits that Harvesters serves have increased 40 percent since the summer of 2008.
Harvesters’ agencies, which cover 26 Missouri and Kansas counties, serve about 66,000 people a week, she said.
“As a result of the economic downturn, many families are walking into a food pantry for the first time, and our agencies are seeing an increase in the number of people in need,” Feldhausen said.
The Society of St. Andrew contributed the spuds to Saturday’s event and takes its biblical mandate seriously. The group “rescues” still-nutritious fruits and vegetables from harvested farm fields and from packing plants where excess produce would otherwise go to landfills, said Lisa Ousley, director of the society’s western headquarters in Kansas City.
The group had two other initiatives going Saturday. Volunteers were scouring fields for watermelon and cantaloupe in Rich Hill, Mo., and gleaning trees for pears in Conception Junction, Mo.
The society has only two paid workers in Kansas City, Ousley said, so it depends heavily on volunteers, like those who cleaned out the potato truck.
“This give folks at these three churches the opportunity to have a role in feeding hungry people,” Ousley said.
That wasn’t news to Foertsch.
“You get more out of it than you give,” she said, before hopping into a red pickup to distribute her potatoes.
The Kansas City Star
http://www.kansascity.com
Anita Foertsch chose to spend part of her 39th anniversary Saturday helping off-load 21 tons of potatoes from a truck that had hauled them from Wisconsin.
But she didn’t see it as much of a sacrifice. Foertsch and dozens of other volunteers who worked at Prairie Baptist Church in Prairie Village were answering a biblical call to use the gleanings from harvested fields as offerings to the poor and needy.
“We have a lot of fortunate people and a lot of hungry people,” Foertsch said. “And you can’t turn down the gift of free potatoes.”
After volunteers pulled more than 4,000 bags of potatoes off the truck and put them into waiting pickups and trailers, they drove them to 20 community kitchens, pantries and service centers throughout the metropolitan area.
That contribution is desperately needed, said Donetta Shaner, who helped organize the event for St. Andrew Christian Church of Olathe, Hillcrest Christian Church in Overland Park and Prairie Baptist.
“You hear all the time that more and more people are going to pantries and food kitchens because they can’t make it from payday to payday,” Shaner said.
Ellen Feldhausen, director of communications for the Harvesters food bank, confirmed Shaner’s perception. Requests for food assistance from the 620 nonprofits that Harvesters serves have increased 40 percent since the summer of 2008.
Harvesters’ agencies, which cover 26 Missouri and Kansas counties, serve about 66,000 people a week, she said.
“As a result of the economic downturn, many families are walking into a food pantry for the first time, and our agencies are seeing an increase in the number of people in need,” Feldhausen said.
The Society of St. Andrew contributed the spuds to Saturday’s event and takes its biblical mandate seriously. The group “rescues” still-nutritious fruits and vegetables from harvested farm fields and from packing plants where excess produce would otherwise go to landfills, said Lisa Ousley, director of the society’s western headquarters in Kansas City.
The group had two other initiatives going Saturday. Volunteers were scouring fields for watermelon and cantaloupe in Rich Hill, Mo., and gleaning trees for pears in Conception Junction, Mo.
The society has only two paid workers in Kansas City, Ousley said, so it depends heavily on volunteers, like those who cleaned out the potato truck.
“This give folks at these three churches the opportunity to have a role in feeding hungry people,” Ousley said.
That wasn’t news to Foertsch.
“You get more out of it than you give,” she said, before hopping into a red pickup to distribute her potatoes.
Please accept the present that was brought to you, for God has been gracious to me and I have all I need." Genesis 33:11a NIV
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MORE INFORMATION
The Society of St. Andrew has an office in Kansas City. Go to endhunger.org/sosawest or call 816-921-0856.
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MORE INFORMATION
The Society of St. Andrew has an office in Kansas City. Go to endhunger.org/sosawest or call 816-921-0856.
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