New Spirit Lutheran in Tucson Blessings in a Backpack: 2023
View reports for our 2023 assembly on our assembly mission and ministry stories page and in this collection of blog posts.
For our 2023 synod assembly, New Spirit Lutheran Church in Tucson shares their story of feeding 325 children for 38 weeks of the most recent school year.
Boldly Trusting God to Provide: Feeding 325 Children
Since 2012, New Spirit Lutheran Church, located on Tucson’s eastside, has partnered with four elementary schools to provide weekend food for food insecure children, through our Blessings in a Backpack program. Weekly food bags include two cereals; cocoa during winter months; a fruit cup, pouch or snack; a protein such as Vienna sausages, tuna or meat jerky sticks; a staple such as mac and cheese, Ramen noodles or rice packs; crackers; breakfast bars; and other items. We started out serving 48 children from one school and have boldly trusted God to provide as we added three more schools and served more than six time the original number of children over the past 11 years. This past school year, we started right out of the gate with 287 children in August. By October that number grew to 325, and we had to cap the number at that point.
Providing weekend food for 325 children during the 38 weeks of the school year has not only stretched our financial resources, but also our volunteers in all facets of the program. Large orders from Costco arrived at the co-coordinator’s house and had to be transported to the church every week. Other food items were purchased from three or more Walmarts to be able to fill the quantity, and it took two people dividing this task to manage the volume. Packing food bags was done by 20 volunteers on a rotational basis. Where it used to take three to four volunteers to pack each week to do this task, it has taken six to eight volunteers to pack 325 bags now. Three volunteers delivered to the schools, with two back-up volunteers helping as needed. Thankfully, God provided a few additional volunteers, too!
From August 15, 2022, through the end of the school year in May, New Spirit will have purchased, packed and delivered an estimated 26,800 pounds of food to 11,447 children (number of kids/week x number of weeks)!!!
New Spirit could not have grown to this capacity without the funding support of the Grand Canyon Synod. With GCS’ support, we were able to meet a few additional needs of the schools beyond food. For example, we were able to purchase cases of Kleenex for the schools and 56 six-pack packages of children’s underwear in various sizes to distribute between the schools for children in need. These are items that generally teachers and administrators buy with their own money.
With GCS funds, we were able to respond to a unique need at one of the elementary schools we serve. Students in the Special Education class had been using individual erase boards that were worn out and almost unusable. The school had no way of replacing them with better tablets. We were able to purchase 13 tablets, similar to Etch-a-Sketches, with styluses, as an important educational tool for these children with special needs.
GCS support funds allowed us greater flexibility and creativity in food purchases from the regular funds that are maintained in our Blessings in a Backpack Corporate fund (which include congregational donations and Endowment grant funds from New Spirit). For example, we were able to purchase items like pumpkin seeds, yogurt fruit snacks, nuts, and other snacks which offered a bit more variety for the children, while still nourishing them. We were able to make purchases through Costco and Amazon, and not just Walmart. We were even able to purchase rolls for one school that made up Thanksgiving bags for the families of their Blessings in a Backpack children.
We are humbly grateful for the support of the Grand Canyon Synod in serving the needs of children in our community. THANK YOU!
