This has been part of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, through which the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has exercised its authority under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to purchase and distribute agricultural products across the country. Through this program, the USDA has purchased up to $6 billion in fresh produce, dairy and meat products from American producers, and partnered with national, regional and local distributors to get these products packaged, boxed and shipped to various community and faith-based organizations and non-profits who have worked to distribute these boxes to Americans in need. To date, the USDA and its partners have worked to distribute more than 157 million boxes of food across the country. Doing so supports people in multiple ways. Those in the community receive free, farm-fresh food, and farmers are able to sell their food to the USDA and make a living. Disruptions in the supply chain due to COVID-19 closures left many farms with extra produce and no way to sell it, so this program helps farmers and families from one end of the supply chain to the other. 

Our Cincinnati volunteers, ranging from children to seniors, worked rain or shine to distribute the contents of 19 semi-trucks containing approximately 24,000 boxes of food to the community and to our brethren on a now-weekly basis. On two occasions, rather than one semi-truck we had two arrive. Each truck contained about 1,300 25-30-pound boxes of food that we had to move in one day. 

The location for this project has proved ideal, as the United Church of God home office has a loading dock and a forklift to move the pallets of food around. Those picking up food would drive to the home office where our helpers loaded their vehicles with boxes of food in a drive-through fashion. Besides individual families that went through the line, other beneficiaries included food pantries and shelters that further redistributed the food. Each box contained a label that stated this distribution was provided by Beyond Today and the United Church of God. 

John Miller, our elder in northeast Ohio, also organized a farmers to families distribution through his manufacturing business in Sugarcreek, Ohio, which has similar warehouse facilities as the home office.

One of our teens was at work a few weeks ago when she noticed one of her customers with a Farmers to Families Food Box in her backseat. Our teen exclaimed, “Oh, my church hands those boxes out.” The woman began crying and said, “I don’t make much money, and those boxes help my family get through stretches of the week where we wouldn’t have much.”

This is just one of the many examples where the community has been very appreciative of our congregation’s support and participation in this program. Our volunteers are routinely thanked by the individuals of the community who are benefiting from the program.

While all programs have both strengths and areas for improvement, in February of this year the Harvard Law School reported on the results of a complete evaluation of this program— finding that it helped mitigate distributor job loss, supported small- and mid-size farms and helped reduce food waste.

The Bible speaks frequently about caring and loving those who are in need: “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17). The relationship between preaching the gospel and caring for the disadvantaged and vulnerable in our midst have gone hand in hand. Caring for the poor or those who need a hand is not our main mission nor is it the only means of preaching the gospel. Rather, it works alongside our mission of preaching as a manifestation of faith.  

This program, which ran through April, was a wonderful exercise. We’ve had hundreds, perhaps thousands of people come through our parking lot and see the shining light of our caring brethren. 

We thank all those who helped out with this opportunity, taken time to load boxes and shed the love of Jesus Christ on others in the community.