Parishioner, Jerry Young, unloads supplies for the Lunch Bag Outreach Program.

One of the things that amazed me this summer was how many families I saw show up at our door for lunches. Mothers and fathers with four or five kids in tow, coming to get a peanut butter sandwich, crackers and juice from St. John’s lunch bag program. This ministry is one of the few lunch programs on the west side of Saginaw and as such, it fills a critical gap so that families in need have a place to go throughout the week. It blesses me to see the people of St. John’s so supportive of this ministry both by volunteering and by donating to help keep it going. Our rummage sale and donations from church members were able to raise $1,400 for this important outreach. But what is becoming more and more difficult is meeting the increased need while at the same time we are losing $4,000 in grants next year. This summer the heavy demand has increased the daily cost to ru

n the program from an average of $50 to over $88 on most days. At this rate it looks like the program could run out of funds by November and next year’s funding is in jeopardy due to the loss of the source of grant money. We share this information knowing that this ministry is important to the people of St. John’s and inviting directed gifts which will go 100% to support this outreach. Our hope is that each person at St. John’s could fund one or two days worth of lunches either by donating money or buying the items from Sam’s Club and donating them to the church. In this way I believe that we will be able to continue to meet the needs of the hungry families in our neighborhood.