KANSAS-NEBRASKA CONFERENCE
Kansas City Food Pantry Responds to COVID-19 Crisis “Taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalm 34:8.” Karen Whitson, pantry director, reports, “Many of our core volunteers were retired individuals and unable to work because of being in the high-risk category for the virus. Pastor Mark Tamaleaa recruited young adult volunteers to step up and fill that void.” Whitson points out that half of the volunteers are community individuals who are not members of the church. “They are part of our church family,” she says. “Many have visited the church on Sabbath and some were coming regularly before the stay-at-home orders went into effect.” n addition to the horrific To accommodate the given opportunities to submit The New Haven Church death toll, the COVID-19 increased volume, and also prayer requests. has operated the ReNewed pandemic has left countless to protect the volunteers, About 80 volunteers per Hope Food Pantry since people hurting, unemployed the pantry’s leaders changed week make the pantry oper2014, and is involved with and hungry. how they operated. Instead of ate smoothly. All the while, other outreach ministries, Almost overnight, the providing a walk-in pantry, they practice social distancincluding a clothes closet and ReNewed Hope Food Pantry the entire operation moved to ing, sanitize frequently and a program to house homeless in Overland Park, Kansas, felt a drive-through service. Each wear gloves and masks. The families at the church. the surge. Operated by the week, cars drive through and volunteers are easily identiNew Haven Church, the food have boxes of food placed in fied by their green team shirts Duane Hallock is a member of the New Haven Church in pantry is one of 60,000 pantheir trunks. They are also which display the message, Overland Park, Kansas. tries in the Feeding America Photos: Mark Tamaleaa network, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization. Less than a month into the stay-at-home orders, the pantry was feeding nearly five times the number of families it served during the same period the previous year. In mid-April, 841 families were fed in one week. That represented 4,450 individuals, with half of them being children.
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18 OUTLOOKMAG.ORG JUNE 2020
