In our attempts to be as Christ to our neighbors, we’ve been on a journey to see how we can help our neighbors when they are hungry, when they are cold, when their lives change in an instant and they don’t know where to turn.

We’re not alone in this effort, of course. One of the people who is also leaning into the effort is also a former member of the congregation. Bill Wavrin and his family have been making moves to help those in our community who struggle to put nutritious food on their tables each day. A year ago, in a church newsletter, he saw that we were giving away Thanksgiving Turkey dinner kits, (all the ingredients, just add cooking!) He got in touch and asked how he could help.

As we began to expand from holiday meals to pantry box, to twice-monthly food pantry days, to breakfasts for our homeless neighbors, our capacity expanded and we started to dream of bigger things.

Bill offered us a commercial freezer and a commercial refrigerator to help us in our efforts and today, the fridge was delivered!

This was all after we learned the painful lesson that colder days mean folks sleeping rough don’t get up early and we had fewer people come down for breakfast. Pastor Tim delivered what was left to several places a little later, when people started to rouse themselves from whatever warmth they could get. It worked out, and we are learning every time we do this.

Thanks to Bill Wavrin and his crew, his family and the good folks of Sunnyside for their support. We would also like to again, thank our partners over at Grocery Outlet, who have been so generous.