Presbytery of Utah
The Presbytery of Utah Matthew 25 Project “Souper Bowl of Caring Competition/Partnership” team consisted of 10 congregations. A total of 6,988 nonperishable food items were collected and $6,302 was donated to local food banks. The physical items of cans and boxes brought the touch and sight of tackling hunger.
It was exciting to see the way each church embraced the project. This was not a new mission project for the most part. Each church chose to support a local to their church food bank. What was new was the connection through Matthew 25. Japanese Church of Christ reported that “We designated our donations to the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake (one of the original founders, Kay Nakashima, was a member of our congregation).”
Mount Olympus Church’s third through fifth grade students devised a system of carrying and tallying the food items from the first-floor collection box to their second-floor classroom that included everyone. This system also worked for carrying the 562 items out for delivery.