Surviving the Pandemic

Surviving the pandemic The bishop’s storehouse provides food and other supplies for TVA families in need BY LISI TIAFAU

Food from the bishop's storehouse getting ready to be distributed to students in need here in Laie. Photo by Ho Yin Li

Although the Associated Press has reported increased unemployment, schools closing and widespread financial instability over the last several months due to the coronavirus pandemic, students and their families said they were blessed with comfort, peace, and continual stocks of food and household items from the bishop’s storehouse and the people who volunteered there.

“It helped us in times of need, and it is a blessing to not only us but to all the families who are in need,” said David Ifuna’au, majoring in social work. David and Beverly Ifuna’au are sophomore students from the Solomon Islands with two children under the age of 3.

Beverly Ifuna’au, majoring in hospitality and tourism management, said, “The bishop’s storehouse helped us when we first had our daughter. It provided us with food, household items like detergent and baby supplies.” Bishop Marcus Nikora, of the Laie Married Student 1st Ward, said, “A bishop’s storehouse usually refers to a commodity resource center used by bishops of the Church to provide goods to needy individuals. It stocks basic foods and essential household items.”

Nikora said the bishop decides whether or not the person will be given assistance and works with the Relief Society president in determining what the person will be given. He explained, “The usual practice is to ask the recipient to work or render some form of service in exchange for the good given them.

“Most of the goods in the storehouse are purchased with fast offering funds or produced on Church-owned agricultural property. Members around the world are blessed even during difficult times, and among them are the families in the Temple View Apartments.”

The Bulos family said the bishop’s storehouse was heaven sent when they first came to BYUH.

Rebecca Bulos, a non-student from the Philippines, shared how the bishop’s storehouse helped them when they were starting their family in TVA. “In the first three weeks since we moved to TVA, my husband was saving his last $200 until he found a job when Bishop dropped a box of food at our apartment.”

Mark Bulos, a senior from the Philippines majoring in business and supply chain management, said, “I was surprised and happy at the same time because I was only eating bread with peanut butter for two weeks. I was on a tight budget, and it was all I could afford.”

He shared he felt the Savior’s love when he received the boxes of food, which he shared with his friends who were also struggling.

J. Richard Clarke explains in his article “The Storehouse Resource System,” in the April 1978 general conference, “Through fast offering, we are distributing our expressions of love through the bishop to the one in need. This is the Lord’s way, wherein both giver and receiver are blessed to the ultimate salvation of both.”