Helping FEED
THE
Community by Steve Gamel
I
n times of crisis, it’s nice to see community leaders, local businesses, and everyday volunteers step up to support their community. Thousand Hills Church in Corinth did just that with a food drive that exceeded everyone’s expectations.
On June 4 and 5, Thousand Hills
partnered with a nationwide humanitarian organization called Convoy of Hope
to distribute more than 1,400 boxes of
mostly fruits and vegetables to families that have been severely impacted by
We just said, ‘Whoever is in need, come
get it.’ It turned out to be a great event.” So how did such a large-scale event like this get started? With a phone call. Convoy of Hope is a non-profit
organization based in
the COVID-19 pandemic. Pastor Ben De Boef said
he had between 60 and 80 volunteers on hand for the
two-day event at Lake Dallas High School. Recipients came from as close as
nearby neighborhoods
We didn’t know where people came from, and we didn’t care. We just said, ‘Whoever is in need, come get it.’
to as far away as Dallas. “We wanted to do our part and support the community,” De Boef said. “There
were 23 pallets of food. I didn’t even know it would be that much, so we turned a
one-day event into two and were able to
distribute it quickly. We didn’t know where people came from, and we didn’t care. www.LakeCitiesLiving.com
Springfield, Missouri. They specialize in disaster relief
work and provide everything from food and supplies
to humanitarian services throughout the world.
According to their website, they’ve already surpassed
10 million meals in response to the
coronavirus crisis. De Boef personally reached out to Convoy of Hope
because he could see a need in his own community and wanted to act quickly.
“I said, ‘I know you guys do a lot of pop-
up events, and we’d love to partner,’” he
said. “I figured, if they’ve got access to
the food, we can make it happen. I can’t imagine how many of these they’ve
done throughout the country. It’s been
pretty cool to see how far-reaching they have become.”
Once the deal was made, all De Boef
and his congregation needed was help. And that wasn’t hard to find.
“We were going to host it here at the
church, but given the size, I called in a few favors at the high school and was able to have it there,” he said. “My daughter and I started doing a lot of Facebook posts
to promote it, and we ended up having between 60 to 80 volunteers. The Lake
Cities Chamber of Commerce was there, a couple of local businesses that heard about it came to help, and many other volunteers. It’s definitely something we’d like to do again in the future.”
For more information on all the fantastic events at Thousand Hills Church, visit their events page at https://
thousandhillspeople.org/events. JULY 2020 | LAKE CITIES LIVING | 25
