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Thanks to First Parish of Westwood for sharing this news with Westwood Minute.
In the spirit of Lent, the Service and Outreach ministry of First Parish of Westwood is organizing a food drive, with the ambitious goal of collecting 1,000 individual items to donate to local food pantries, for the food insecure. The church invites members of the local community, regardless of religious experience or affiliation, to participate.
For those who observe Lent, this period before Easter serves as a time to give something up as a way of practicing self-discipline and remembering Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. As many Christians are in the habit of choosing a favorite food to abstain from during Lent, First Parish’s pastor, JT Hills, has encouraged his congregation to use their Lenten “sacrifice” as a way to benefit others in the community. Take your own food purchase, do without it, and contribute it to the food insecure, he urges.
The food insecure do not always have the luxury of “choosing” a time to abstain from a certain food. Rather, hunger is a fact, not a choice. The ability to consistently and reliably feed themselves and their families is an ongoing challenge.
Anyone who cares about alleviating hunger and worry for community members who are experiencing food insecurity is invited to join in First Parish of Westwood’s thousand-item food drive.
Church organizers have communicated with Westwood Food Pantry and Norwood Food Pantry to determine what are the areas of greatest need. Based on the feedback, organizers have created schedule of suggested donation items. For the past two weeks of the Lenten season, the church has collected spaghetti sauce, chili, beef stew, and hash. For upcoming weeks, the schedule is as follows:
- Week of March 12th: Canned fruit (fruit cocktail, peaches, pears, pineapple, 15 oz. size)
- Week of March 19th: Sweetened and unsweetened cereal, black tea (regular or decaffeinated)
- Week of March 26th: Cans of white tuna, packages of ramen noodles
- Week of April 2nd: Peanut butter, jelly
- Week of April 9th: Any of the above items, and/or cleaning products
Community members who wish to drop off donations are welcome to enter the church on Sundays or during office hours.
Office hours are on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. Enter from the doors which face the parsonage, and find the food collection area directly to the left of the church doors, outside the church office.
Community members are also invited to bring their items and join a Sunday service, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Alternatively, food drive participants may choose to drop-off items outside the church office in the half-hour before or after Sunday service.
