Dear Friends,

This week I went to a meeting hosted by St. Gregory’s Pantry, our local community food pantry which our church supports. How blessed we are to have such a wonderful resource to draw upon and how blessed we are to have so many volunteers support the pantry through the giving of their time, energy, food and money.

Once again I was reminded of the number of people living right in our midst who would have a tough time making ends meet without help from the pantry. In addition to food, the pantry has helped with rental assistance, payment of utility bills as well as given out gift cards to help with gas and items from area grocery and drug stores. The list goes on and on of those who have been helped over the years in a variety of ways.

Thanksgiving and Christmas distributions will be coming in the next two months. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 250-300 families will be helped to have a special holiday meal and something to put under the tree for children on Christmas day because of these distributions. I know that many of you have purchased gifts for children as well as donated food in past years. Thank you and I pray that you continue to do so.

This year, one simple way to help out the clients of St. Gregory’s is by donating soup. The request for soup from clients has dramatically increased since Hurricane Sandy. Soup is both a comfort food and satisfying. Therefore I would like to suggest that we at PPPC designated now through Christmas as “SOUP SEASON.”

How easy it is to pick up a can or two of soup each time you grocery shop. Bring it to church and put it in the box in the Narthex designated for St. Gregory’s. What is simply a can of soup to you is an evening meal for someone else.

See you in church with your can of soup.

Pastor Linda