Peace Begins Where Hunger Ends
What can 2¢ a Meal do to end hunger? There are two answers to this question – 1) Not much. 2) A great deal.
Every effort to change something needs to start somewhere and usually starts small. In May 2007, a small group of people formed the Hunger and Poverty Group as part of the Outreach Ministry Team and ini-tiated the 2¢ a Meal program at LCOB. The project, which started out with little cardboard houses where children and adults would deposit 2¢ for every meal they ate, now consists of checks and monetary dona-tions four times a year.
The 2¢ a Meal money received to date in 2016 is $4,145.09. One third of that money goes to the Lancaster County Council of Churches Food Bank where $10.00 will buy 50 pounds of food wholesale from the PA Food Bank. (Our congregation is also supporting the new LCCC Food Hub facility on North Queen Street through a five-year fund drive of $100,000.)
The LCCC Food Bank is able to provide food for the needy through your generosity and your monetary contributions. You can give of your resources in other ways, too. Every week some volunteers from our congregation gather at the LCCC Food Hub to sort, organize and pack donated food for the many families. According to volunteer Bob Hess, the LCCC Food Bank feeds100 families per day! Many volunteers are needed to make that possible.
The remaining two thirds of the money from the 2¢ a Meal project is designated for the Brethren Global Food Crisis Fund. In 2015, LCOB gave $275,184.00 to the Global Food Crisis Initiative.
Displaced people need a home and need to be fed. They need people who open their hearts and give them a helping hand. Let us move forward together and continue to help those in need. We can make a difference right here in Lancaster County as well as in many areas around the world.
–Otto Schaudel, Hunger and Poverty Group/OMT