E
ach Sunday evening at worship, we gather fresh produce and other items to support the ministry of Agape Table, the meal program that operates in the parish hall five days a week, feeding some 200 to 250 people a day.
Coming up to Christmas in 2004, when we were first gathering at All Saints Church, I asked the director of Agape what we could do as our Christmas project. He smiled, and basically said that they were well covered during December, but that the other eleven months of the year were the real challenge. He suggested we think about collecting fresh vegetables for the soups and stews throughout the year, and when I asked if they could also use fruit, he again smiled and said, “You know, the closest we come to having fruit is jam. Fruit would be great.” Well, the first time he saw me after we’d begun gathering that fruit, he told me that it had been a delight to watch as some of their weathered and dispirited meal “guests” had acted like kids when the first trays of oranges came out, even putting the orange quarters across the front of their mouths and giving each other those big child-like orange grins we usually associate with kids on the side of a soccer field. We were hooked.
We encourage our community to bring something every week, in part to support Agape but also to keep reminding ourselves that as Christians we simply cannot ignore the realities of poverty and hunger. It is, at that level, a simple spiritual discipline. Consider bringing something from the following list:
- fresh vegetables, and particularly onions, carrots and other produce suitable for soups and stews… potatoes are not needed, as they already come in abundance from Winnipeg Harvest.
- fresh fruit; anything seasonal, and in good shape, just like you might buy for your own family.
- items for general health and life, that most of us just take for granted, including diapers, tampons, tooth paste and brushes, soap and other toiletries.
