ROCHESTER — "Incarnation" is the blessed truth that God entered into our earthly existence in the person of Jesus Christ; forming our way of being in this world. Just as Jesus is fully present to us in the bread and wine, so too our faith must take on concrete form so that others can see, hear, taste, smell and touch this reality.
Impelled by this sacred summons, Christians need to find creative and helpful ways to manifest the love and presence of Jesus Christ in the world in such a way as to invite, excite and feed others. With this in mind, I want to tell you about an exciting way of helping those in your parish to demonstrate this love in the form of gathering others to bag rice casserole meals for the hungry.
Last November, a friend sent me an invitation to help at a meal packaging event at the Boys & Girls Club in Springfield. Sponsored by the Illinois 4-H and the Illini Fighting Hunger Initiative, the University of Illinois Extension brought a van fully loaded with sacks of rice, soy protein crumbles, dried vegetables and chicken bouillon powder.
Joined by some families from St. Jude Parish, groups of 10 measured these ingredients into a plastic bag, then weighed, sealed, labeled and packed them into boxes. After the first few attempts to get it right, each group swiftly established a joyful rhythm that filled the boxes meant for hungry families. Seeing this unfold was a marvel at how we were acting as a eucharistic people; flexing our combined discipleship for the benefit of others. When the final boxes were sealed and ready for delivery, it became evident that this was something that we needed to do in Rochester.
With a new director of Faith Formation at the Rochester United Methodist Church next door, this packaging event seemed like a good way reestablish ties between our two communities. We agreed to combine our junior and senior high teens and work to generate the funds needed to purchase the amount of food needed to bag more than 10,000 meals. At St. Jude, we sold "shares" of the project in differing denominations. Once told about the project, parishioners gladly purchased shares for $5, $20 and up to $100. Thanks to one generous donor, the children at our annual Mardi Gras celebration were given the option to forgo a prize at the various games in lieu of a $1 share. Knowing they could help feed a family, our children responded with great generosity. Collecting the money surprisingly fast meant we were ready to practice some discipleship.
Mindful of our intended audience, we scheduled the event for a Friday when school dismissed early. To sweeten the deal, we managed to have enough money together to offer pizza for lunch. Soon 60 people arrived, including some senior citizen groups from the Methodist church along with some adults from our parish. In 90 minutes we managed to bag enough rice casserole to provide 10,872 meals to food pantries in our area. To build and demonstrate local discipleship, several cases were delivered to our own Rochester community food pantry that is sponsored by the Rochester Ministerial Alliance with the bulk of the food shipped to Catholic Charities Holy Family Food Pantry, St. Martin de Porres and Kumler Outreach Ministries in Springfield.
There are several reasons why your parish could benefit by sponsoring a meal packaging event:
Bagging food and feeding the hungry flows from the Gospel and our love for the Eucharist;
Kids yearn for a chance to volunteer so bagging food is something children are able to do well;
Packaging meals is a great way to enliven a PSR or youth group; and
A great way for groups who might not normally interact beyond meetings to work on a common task and broaden their sense of identity within the parish community.
For help in getting started, please call (217) 498-9197 for more information or Bill Million at the U of I Extension at (217) 333-1256.