Within a few miles of our church, there are a number of apartment communities with families who are eligible for free or reduced school lunches. When there is no school, families may or may not have food for the children, so we have started providing brown bag lunches on some of those days. There are also many senior citizens who benefit from lunch deliveries.
Lunches consist of a sandwich, fresh fruit or a fruit cup, an individual bag of chips, a cookie, and a juice box. Volunteers go out into these communities along the Bethel-Sawmill corridor to deliver lunches. Students in these communities attend Dublin City Schools, including Daniel Wright Elementary, Thomas Elementary, Sells Middle School, and Coffman High School. We also deliver to senior citizens along the routes.
We have also expanded this ministry to more than lunches. We deliver Blessing Boxes with things like pasta, pasta sauce, peanut butter, grape jelly, bread, macaroni and cheese, cereal, canned fruits and vegetables, and fresh vegetables from the Northwest Children’s Garden. We have donated children’s books, hosted parties in the neighborhoods, given away backpacks and school supplies, delivered Thanksgiving and Christmas food boxes, and had Santa deliver Christmas toys. We are continually looking for ways to increase our ministry to these neighborhoods.