Not Just Numbers

In late March, Galilee Ministries launched a new feeding ministry called Our Daily Bread and Soup. This ministry is made possible by the generosity of the people of Christ Church through the Christmas Eve offering. Volunteers gather weekly in the Galilee kitchen to make fresh bread and soup. Bread and soup are available free of charge to our neighbors in need and oftentimes supplement shelf stable food from Lydia’s Pantry. This ministry is abundance made visible, one loaf and one quart at a time.

So far, we've made Italian bread and eight delicious varieties of soup: vegetarian vegetable, bean and sausage, chicken and corn chowder, Brunswick Stew, potato and leek, pasta e fagioli, black bean, and chicken noodle. Each week, most quarts go into the freezer. But some also go into the refrigerator for easy reheating for our unhoused neighbors that would like to eat at Galilee. 

In the daily care and maintenance of feeding ministries at Galilee, there is endless – and necessary – counting: what came in, what goes out, how many of our neighbors come for food, how many loaves are made, how many quarts filled, and on and on. 

For example, between late March and yesterday, volunteers have made 334 loaves of Italian bread and right at 300 quarts of soup. Between January and April, Lydia’s Pantry fed, provided personal hygiene and household supplies to roughly 1,100 people. Our May 19 Food is Love Community Lunch was beautifully hosted by the Christ Church Reading Between the Lines group. They prepared food for 75 people and by the end of the lunch, it had all been served. 

Keeping up with numbers is important. And of course, they only offer a limited view of what’s actually happening at Galilee: all of the people, the stories, trust and relationships, and the feeding of body, mind, and spirit. Joanne Stevenson Jenkins offered the following reflection she calls “Not Just Numbers.” 

What is emerging in me is the power of the stories behind the numbers. One story in particular has lingered now for over a week. A mother called expressing a difficult dilemma – to borrow gas money from a friend to get to Galilee for food for her family of five, or use the gas money to take her disabled son to the Social Security office.

As I listened to this dear woman, all I could think of is Jesus’ advice to not worry about tomorrow and to look to the birds and flowers of the field. And it comforted me.

So she did come on over to Galilee, picked up her food from Lydia’s Pantry plus homemade soup, hugged me, and said, “Tomorrow will take care of itself, won’t it? First things first. Thank you all for being here.”

If you have questions about any of the feeding ministries at Galilee, please let me know. I would love to tell you more! 

In service,

Emily+