The Helping Hand ministry wishes to thank the congregation for their amazing generosity during our annual Thanksgiving Food Drive. Due to COVID-19, we needed to do the food drive a bit differently this year, and we wondered how the drive would go. Instead of collecting food items, we invited the congregation to give funds. The gift totals over the month of November were staggering! We are thankful and know that our food shelf partners will be too!

Here are the results of our 2020 November Thanksgiving Food Drive: 

• $19,408.81 came in for Jericho Road Ministries (Downtown Campus)
• $12,802.18 came in for Ralph Reeder Food Shelf (North Campus)
• $5,053 came in for “360 Communities” Food Shelf (South Campus)

Highlights From Jeff Noyed and Jericho Road Ministries 

Jericho Road is so very grateful for Bethlehem Baptist’s outpouring of monetary support for the November Food Drive. Indeed, Jericho Road can say with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in Luke 1:53: “The Lord has filled the hungry with good things.” By the end of this extremely challenging year of 2020, we will have seen more than 900,000 pounds of food distributed to the hungry in South Minneapolis near the Lake Street neighborhood.

I am truly amazed at the results of the November offering. Think of it this way, Jericho Road will be able to turn that $19,000 offering into more than 190,000 pounds of food! Through ordering from food banks, Jericho Road can turn $1 into 10 pounds of high-quality food.

Here is one way to make the comparison. A recent order from Second Harvest Heartland Food Bank included 4,217 pounds of food for $431.05. Our order included the following:

• Peaches (7 cases), Whole Kernel Corn (7 cases), Onions (six 50-pound bags), Carrots (140 three-pound bags), Wild Rice (240 one-pound bags)
• Eggs (8 cases,15 dozer per), Milk (198 half-pound gallons)
• Tuna (8 cases), Chicken Breast (150 packages), Ground Beef (240 one-pound packages)
• Beef Pasta Skillet Dinner (6 cases), Cheesy Tuna Skillet Dinner (6 cases), and Chicken Flavored Rice & Sauce Mix (6 cases)
• Disposable Face Masks (1,200 total masks/10 cases), Hand Sanitizer (15 cases)
  

With Deep Gratefulness and for God’s Glory in the City,

Jeff Noyed
Director
Jericho Road Ministries