November 04, 2017

Youth Thermal Belt Outreach Shopping Day

The children of Holy Cross were shining examples of being God's hands and feet upon this earth as they arrived early Saturday morning on November 4th (along with dedicated and patient moms and dads and volunteers) to purchase food for the needy to be donated to Thermal Belt Outreach.

Using the $500 they had earned through their very own Ice Cream Social, our enthusiastic youth first met in the McGavern Room for a brief Bible lesson about ministering to the poor, and then sat down with a budget and coupons to be used towards the day's excursion to the new Lidl grocery store in Spartanburg. What a great 'life lesson' this turned out to be: deciding exactly how much food they could purchase, how to use coupons in the most effective manner, and what might be the most useful type of food items to buy.

From Holy Cross our intrepid group descended upon Lidl, the children donning T-shirts emblazoned with the Episcopal shield drawn by Phoebe Aldrich that certainly turned more than a few curious heads. Here they divided up into small groups to tackle purchases in different parts of the store, with shopping carts in tow carrying both foods and an occasional participant!

Remaining responsible by keeping an eye on their budget, the children purchased $434 worth of food, and after all of this was loaded into the cars they headed back towards Tryon/Columbus as the last stop of the day was to deliver their goods to Thermal Belt Outreach. Normally closed on Saturday, director George Alley gave our kids a brief tour of the pantry, showing them how and why people in need come to collect food and toiletries. The children listened as George explained that need can come from all kinds of situations: poor health, death of a spouse, unemployment, or any number of reasons.

When the groceries were unloaded and checked in to be weighed, to everyone's delight, the grand total was 556 pounds!! What an enormous triumph from the smallest members of our church!