Trinity Lutheran Chruch

Today was the first day that I started my service learning experience at Trinity Lutheran Church, just across the street from the PLU library. I arrived at 10am and was able to have the privilege of helping with the food pantry they have on the church premises. The Trinity Lutheran Church Food Pantry is open every Tuesday and Friday and is open to the local residents around the greater Parkland area. There are a few qualifications for families to be eligible. The Food Pantry expects about 20 to 25 different families each time they are open. Even though it is a small number of families, it is still a group that needs an extra helping hand.

There are two women that dedicate their time to running and volunteering at the Food Pantry. They are such caring women and have such big hearts, their goal is to literally feed all that are hungry, no questions asked. Like the Trinity Lutheran Church's mission statement says, "Living out our faith in Jesus Christ through joyous service to others." These two amazing women make sure that when each resident enters the food pantry they feel welcomed, at home, and comfortable. They have many visions and goals for this food pantry and I would be more than willing to help them, not only during J-term, but well into the spring semester and on. I will admit, I never knew the food pantry existed at the Trinity Lutheran Church. One of their goals is to expand the advertisement, in order to reach out to more people in need.

Another fabulous thing Trinity Lutheran Church puts on is community meals one to two times a month. Anyone from the community is welcome to come and enjoy some homemade food cooked by volunteers and meet and enjoy the company of local residents.

During the time I was there I was not only able to help sort canned goods, dried goods, produce, grains, and dairy into different packages, but I was able to help distribute the packages to the locals. As each person arrived we would greet them and ask how their day was going. We would then check in each person and depending on the size of the family they were providing for, we would give them the appropriate amount. The packages may not have much or enough to feed their families for the entire month or week for that matter, but it is a little bit that will help in a big way. The food is donated by the church members, locals, local businesses, PLU dining services, and the PLU garden. I work for PLU catering on campus and before winter break I actually helped organize and package left over food that was not going to be used to donate to local food pantries or food banks. I had no idea that I would get the wonderful opportunity of actually seeing the whole processes of food being donated and then being able to hand in it out to those in need.

As I continue with this service learning experience I hope to be able to become more familiar with the residents whom use the Trinity Lutheran Church Food Pantry. The more and more I volunteer I believe the clients with become more comfortable and hope that they are able to open up and share their stories and life with me. This is a real eye opening experience to just see how just donating a little can help and go a long way. From one day alone it helps me to recognize how much I take my life and growing up years for granted and because of that I want to give back to my community and continue with this volunteer experience, beyond this course’s requirements.