7,000 Pounds of Hope

When a Church Leans In

Three weeks ago, we asked Community Church to do four things: lean in, have a heart, pray, and give food generously so people can eat. It was a simple ask, made to a church family that already had plenty on its own plate.

You answered with 7,000 pounds of food.

It came in one bag and one box at a time. Nobody gave a truckload. Thousands of small decisions, made in grocery aisles and kitchen pantries, added up to three and a half tons of groceries for neighbors we may never meet. That is what happens when a church stops asking whether someone should do something and decides to be the someone.

More Than They Could Take

The food was headed to the Salvation Army, which feeds families in our area all year long. Then we ran into a problem, and it was the best kind of problem. There was more food than they could take.

Their team was impressed, and so were we. A church family had filled their shelves in three weeks and still had more to give.

So the rest stayed with us. All through the following week, families from our community came by and took home what they needed. Nothing was wasted. Every can and every box found a kitchen.

Jesus has a history with leftovers. In John 6, a boy hands over five loaves and two fish, and five thousand people eat until they are full. Then the disciples gather what remains and fill twelve baskets. God did not just meet the need that day. He went past it. We watched a small version of that story happen in our own church.

Put it all together, and hundreds of families will have food on their shelves in the months ahead.

The Need Is Real, and It Is Close to Home

It would be easy to think hunger is somebody else’s problem, somewhere else. The numbers say otherwise.

The most recent statewide data shows more than 1.76 million Pennsylvanians living with food insecurity. That is one in seven of our neighbors, and it includes more than half a million children. Since 2021, food insecurity in Pennsylvania has climbed 44 percent.

The Poconos are part of that story. Last November, Pocono Mountains United Way and the Community Foundation of Monroe County launched a Food Crisis Fund as local pantries reported record demand. The Salvation Army in East Stroudsburg serves breakfast and lunch every weekday, and it lists money for perishable food as its greatest need right now.

Behind every one of those numbers is a person. It is the coworker who skips lunch so the kids can eat dinner. It is the senior down the road stretching a fixed income. It is the family in the next row on Sunday who would never say a word. Food insecurity rarely looks the way we expect. Most of the time it looks like someone we already know.

We Gave Anyway

Here is what makes 7,000 pounds remarkable. Nobody in our church gave from a place of ease.

Groceries cost more for us too. So do rent, gas, and heat. Plenty of the people who filled those bags are carrying their own stress about work, bills, and what next year holds. We had every reason to hold on tight to what we have.

We gave anyway.

Paul saw the same thing in the churches of Macedonia. In 2 Corinthians 8, he writes that in the middle of a severe trial, their joy and their deep poverty overflowed into rich generosity. They gave beyond what anyone thought they could. Generosity has never depended on having extra. It depends on who you trust.

Proverbs 22:9 says, “He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.” And Jesus makes it personal in Matthew 25:35: “For I was hungry and you gave me food to eat.”

That is what happened here. We trusted God. We looked within. We found that we had more to give than we thought, and we made this happen together.

This Is Who We Are

At Community Church we say that people are our heart and generosity is our privilege. Those are easy words to put on a wall. Over the last three weeks, you put them in grocery bags.

This church cares about the Pocono area. We care about the families who live here, and we refuse to accept that a neighbor should wonder where the next meal is coming from. A food drive will not end hunger. It will put dinner on hundreds of tables, and it tells our community that the church is for them.

The need will not go away when the shelves empty, especially with winter and the holidays ahead. So keep leaning in. Keep praying. Keep your heart soft toward the people around you.

Isaiah 58:10 gives us the promise: “If you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in darkness.”

Thank you, Community Church. Seven thousand pounds of food is seven thousand pounds of light.