Women who paired with Time Out for Women and LDS Living in 2012 made a significant difference to help the hungry.
This year’s Time Out for Women service project, which was sponsored by LDS Living, encouraged participating women to bring specific food items to the conference that could be included in family meals. Over 4,000 women participated in the service project during the course of the 2012 “Seek the Good” tour, and even more women donated food to make complete meals for families of four.
“It was a need that we knew was there,” says Laura Korth, tour manager for Time Out for Women. “We really wanted to reach out to families, and doing these complete meals seemed to be a good way to do that.”
At the conference, the women assembled the food and placed each family’s “Good Meal” in a bright pink bag to be donated to a local food bank. At each conference, a representative of the food bank came to talk to the women about who would be receiving the donations.
Korth says that with the current economic situation, the kind of clients who come into the food banks are different than in years past, and many who thought that they would never need the services of a food bank are now finding themselves in need.
“Everybody . . . knows someone who is really in need right now, so I think [the women] felt really great about participating in the project,” says Korth.
In total, the project collected enough food donations to provide a meal for more than 23,000 people around the country. It was also a great way for the women to connect with a local food bank in their area, in case they wanted to volunteer with them later, or in case they may have needed help themselves.
And what did the food banks think about the project?
Karen Gladieux, community outreach director for Operation Food Search in St. Louis, wrote: “The pink bags not only provided nutritious meals for struggling families, but also provided hope, hope that in the midst of their difficult times someone cared. As I loaded the pink bags into the van, I couldn’t help but feel that God was whispering, ‘You saw that I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.’”
Every food bank Korth contacted about the project was thrilled with the prospect. She says: “It was kind of a different idea for a food drive than they are usually approached with, so they were excited about it.”
Learn more about Time Out for Women.