A TIMELESS TRADITION GROUNDED IN GIVING

A timeless tradition,

grounded in giving and grace

BY KATHERINE WHITFIELD BAKER

Few can seem to recall when the Christmas

food baskets program began. Certainly, there are ballpark estimates and solid conjectures—around 30 years ago, say, or sometime in the mid-80s—but for many Independent Presbyterian Church parishioners, it seems difficult to remember a time when the food baskets ministry was not an integral part of the church’s DNA. Like so many time-honored traditions, particularly those rooted in the Christmas season, the annual food basket ministry seems like something that has always been in existence, baked into the ethos of IPC as a physical extension of the church’s mission to be “A New People for a New Memphis.”

“IPC exists to worship Our Father in Heaven and to clearly communicate his truths of the Gospel to our city and the world,” said Associate Pastor Ed Norton, who has served within the IPC community for 25 years. “The IPC Christmas baskets are tangible evidence of our love for Memphis, and I love seeing the Body of Christ come together each year to participate in this ministry as we seek the peace and prosperity of the city.”

From 20 to 1,200 Fed

In fact, the food baskets ministry has been bringing people of all ages and abilities together for more than 35 years now, serving as a sign of the Christmas season for IPC and for the families blessed through the church’s ministry partners—Streets Ministries, Neighborhood Christian Center, and Palmer Home for Children. Begun in 1985 by members Anne Seiler and George Merriam, IPC’s food basket program served approximately 20 families in its inaugural year. Church members were encouraged to bring food from home to fill a handful of boxes lining the hallway near the

sanctuary, and these boxes were then hand delivered to families in need. In the years that followed, the congregation continued to donate food from home to fill the boxes, but program coordinators began requesting monetary gifts and specific food items, as well, to ensure greater continuity among the boxes. By 1991, the ministry was running entirely on monetary gifts and volunteer hours, and a total of 125 food baskets were donated from IPC members that year for distribution to at-risk families through the Neighborhood Christian Center. Financial contributions and total families served increased exponentially over the years, and program leadership gradually transitioned to two couples, Matt and Sam Olson and Bob and Kathy Garrett, who collectively spearheaded the ministry for about 25 years. The couples learned valuable lessons along the way—for example, that eggs, potato chips, and bread, while popular, weren’t likely to survive the basket’s journey—and the chairs also made thoughtful adjustments to basket contents throughout the years, seeking ongoing guidance from Neighborhood Christian Center and Streets to make sure the program wasn’t duplicating other service efforts or providing families with unpopular or unneeded items.

“In the program’s early days, we focused our efforts on pantry items like cooking oil, corn meal, and other baking goods, but we’ve made a point along the way to adapt with the times, and today the food baskets contain a wider range of mixes, boxed meals, microwave-friendly options, and other staples,” said Kathy Garrett, whose family joined IPC in 1989. “We also made a shift in the early 90s from purchasing food retail to buying our food through a distributor at wholesale prices. That helped our donations stretch even farther, and we were really able to enhance the scope of what we included in the food baskets.”

Today, IPC’s annual baskets ministry provides a week’s worth of food—including ham, potatoes, carrots, onions, and other Christmas dinner fare—to approximately 1,200 families

in our community every season. Each year, the congregation donates an inspiring $45-$50,000 in support of the program, and with a gift of $50, church members have the opportunity to sponsor a basket in honor or memory of a loved one. In its largest year, the congregation filled and distributed a staggering 1,800 boxes, though the program has since evolved to support one partnering ministry, Palmer Home for Children, with financial resources allocated specifically for ongoing food purchases in the coming year. Neighborhood Christian Center and Streets Ministries continue to receive a combined total of about 1,200 food baskets for the families they serve.

Families Helping Families

While one might think a ministry of this magnitude requires weeks of behind-the-scenes busyness to prep and package so many baskets, IPC’s members somehow manage this effort in only two days, assembling on a Friday afternoon and subsequent Saturday morning to turn two tractor-trailer loads of grocery items into 1,200 individually packed and prayed-over food baskets. Teamwork, years of trial and error, strong logistics expertise, grace, prayer, and good old-fashioned fun and good cheer appear to be the ingredients that make up a successful recipe for the baskets’ annual assembly endeavor.

“We’ve had the help of hundreds of volunteers each year— each with their own special contribution to the day. Some provide music, some bring donuts, some tear down boxes, some pack the food, some load vehicles for delivery, and so on,” recalls former program chair Sam Olson. “It’s amazing that a group can fill, load and deliver over a thousand boxes and clean up the fellowship hall all in one Saturday morning, but it happens! Volunteers from the congregation with a passion to change our city for Christ donate, do the work, and share in the blessing of families helping families.”

Traditionally, donation collections begin in mid-November, and assembly and delivery take place a month later, when

“In the program’s early days, Wednesday dinner and activities have paused we focused our efforts on for the season, and Advent wreaths are blazing pantry items like cooking oil, bright. Volunteers gather on a Friday afternoon corn meal, and other baking to unpack two truckloads of food and prep the goods, but we’ve made a fellowship hall for the next morning’s assembly point along the way to adapt line, when hundreds of volunteers come together with the times, and today the to load individual food items into every basket. food baskets contain a wider At some point over the years, IPC introduced a range of mixes, manual conveyor belt into its packing process, so boxed meals, baskets are moved through the hall via conveyor microwave- belt and rolled right out the window into the friendly options vehicle of a volunteer helping with deliveries. and other Boxes for Neighborhood Christian Center are staples.” delivered in bulk to NCC for distribution, but each Kathy Garrett, basket for Streets Ministries is delivered directly former program co-chair to a family’s door by IPC volunteers. Each year, Streets helps identify recipients for the program, and IPC families deliver individual food baskets to each family on their list. Church volunteers offer to pray with every family they visit, and many meaningful, prayerful and holy moments have taken place over the years on front porches and in living rooms of homes throughout the greater Memphis community. Friends from IPC also pray over each and every basket before its distribution, and a card is included inside proclaiming to recipients that prayers have been said for their “protection, provision, and salvation, and for the salvation of those in your family.”

The Hands and Feet of Jesus

Perhaps strange at first, though, is the absence of IPC’s name anywhere on the food baskets. A far cry from the traditional ‘to’ and ‘from’ framework underpinning so much of the holiday giving season, nowhere does IPC’s name appear on any box, basket, or finished product delivered to recipients. Instead, materials from either Streets or Neighborhood Christian Center are inserted in the boxes, alongside the unsigned prayer card. “The families receiving these boxes typically don’t know IPC,” said Kathy Garrett. “Their relationship is with Streets or NCC, and we are equipping those organizations to do their ministry. Our partner ministries are the face of Jesus for these families, checking in with them to see how the food was received, what they enjoyed, and what they’d like to see differently next year. IPC is the hands

and feet, helping do the work of donations and deliveries.”

Although it may seem unusual for a community to contribute over $50,000 in resources to bless those in need without seeking recognition or anything else in return, IPC’s generosity and willingness to serve as the behind-the-scenes body of Christ is the church’s hallmark, according to those ministry partners whose communities are nourished through the program.

“Many churches have their recurring ministries, but IPC is always willing and available, whenever a need arises,” said former member Ken Bennett, who founded Streets Ministries in 1987 and remains actively involved there today. “Whether the need is clothing, food, or another resource, IPC is a place that understands how to love the city unconditionally. It is an honor to serve alongside people who are driven by their love of the Gospel and their personal relationship to Jesus, and I thank God for the IPC community every day.”

Abundance and Grace

About four years ago, the Olson and Garrett families passed the torch to the Douglass and Williams families, and the food basket ministry is now helmed by church members who were barely old enough to see inside the boxes when the program first began. The two couples, Gene and Noelle Douglass and Ford and Halley Williams, have already helped shepherd one of IPC’s longest standing ministries through the challenging climate of COVID-19, adapting the 2020 food baskets program to provide gift cards for hungry families, rather than procuring and packaging physical boxes of food. Noelle also recalls fears of a fundraising shortage in 2019, when donations initially came up several thousand dollars short of the need. Both the Olsons and Garretts recounted a similar year when the fundraising goal seemed impossibly far out of reach, but ultimately, both then and in 2019, God’s abundant blessings shone bright through IPC and donations surpassed the need by a significant margin.

“Little did we know that the surplus raised in 2019 would be put to use in 2020 to help assist families during the pandemic,” said Noelle Douglass, who has been an IPC member since middle school and also served on staff at Streets. “Every year, God shows us He is present and in charge in some pretty miraculous ways, and the entire church—including volunteers as young as 4 years old—comes together to serve our community.” So, too, with the weather each December, when the weekend earmarked for food basket assembly always seems to come in right under, or after, any threats of ice, snow, or freezing cold. God’s abundance and grace seem to radiate in, around, and through all aspects of IPC’s annual food baskets ministry, and as evidenced by the congregation’s ongoing support and the program’s faithful transition from family to family throughout the years, food baskets have grown into the sort of timeless Christmas tradition that will likely be woven into the fabric of IPC as long as “We’ve had the help of the church’s members have ears to hear and hundreds of volunteers each eyes to see. year — each with their own “I have been involved in Christmas baskets special contribution to the since I was in high school, and each year it day. Some provide music, has been a great blessing in my life,” said some bring donuts, some program co-chair Halley Williams. “Now, I have tear down boxes, some pack the privilege of bringing my own children to the food, some load vehicles participate. I’m so thankful my kids can learn for delivery, and so on.” what it means to love and serve our city, doing Sam Olson, something for others at Christmas. I’m also former program thankful they can be reminded to have a heart of co-chair gratitude for all they have been given, and that we can all remind each other that Jesus loves us and through His great love, we are called to go and love others.”

IPC MISSIONS CONFERENCE • FEBRUARY 16–20, 2022

The Kingdom of God

Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” MARK 12:29-31

The only way the kingdom of God is going to be manifest in this world before Christ comes is if we manifest it by the way we live as citizens of heaven and subjects of the King. R. C. SPROUL

A Christian is: a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which Christ loves, a voice through which Christ speaks, and a hand through which Christ helps. AUGUSTINE