Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who helped support the Thanksgiving Community Food Ministry this season.

Thanksgiving 2024

A Note of Thanks from Terry & Sherri Taber:

Thank you to everyone who helped with the 2024 Thanksgiving
Community Food Ministry! Many of you helped after the Nov 16th Saturday worship service to move food,
Adopt-a-Boxes, and boxes to the Family Life Center. The next day, more volunteers moved the remainder of the
food, prepared the food line by removing plastic wrapping and unneeded containers, and opened boxes on the
tables to prepare them for Roberts students to tape. Then, on Thursday, Nov 21, you helped to pack 900 boxes
in about 90 minutes.
Others helped by “adopting boxes” and filling them with items from the designated list. These Adopt-a-Boxes
were used to provide Heart & Soul with nearly 250 boxes. And some donated funds used to purchase food
items, or donated food, to complete the food line for packing boxes.
Thank you!
A big thank you to Jim Heeks (food collection), Ron Sittig, Bill Osgood, John Berardicurti (Food Storage), Jim
Maier & Facilities team (set-up/clean-up), Lydia Monroe and Kim Brittin in the office (communications &
logistics), and reception desk staff (preparation of Pearce list and fielding calls). And thank you to Debbie &
Mark Bates, our core team partners for this ministry.
All of this helped Pearce Thanksgiving Community Ministry provide 1156 families with food, produce, and
turkeys for Thanksgiving. Praise God!
We did hear many words of appreciation and gratitude for the food being received. We pray God uses these
food boxes in a powerful way for his kingdom and we’ll give him all the glory.

Thanksgiving Community Food Ministry

Each Thanksgiving, we join with other local churches and organizations in the Rochester area to provide over 1,000 boxes of food to families in our community and city. With the help of other supporting churches and agencies, the goal this Thanksgiving is to provide boxes of food, fresh produce, and frozen turkeys for 1,150 families.

The cost of the turkeys has already been covered, so we are able to focus solely on filling the Adopt-a-Boxes.

Pearce Church’s specific goal is to provide 250 Adopt-a-Boxes. These boxes will be distributed by our sister church, Heart and Soul Free Methodist Church within the church, the neighborhoods surrounding their church and an adopted school. Read below to learn how you can join us as we help make Thanksgiving meaningful for families in our community during these difficult times.

Committed Adopt-A-Box Donations

ADOPT-A-BOX

It is the goal of Pearce Church to fill 250 “Adopt-a-Box” donations—an entire box filled with the needed food items. Adopt-a-Box donations can be dropped off at the church before or after any weekend worship service or weekdays from 6:30am-6pm, through Sunday, November 17. As you enter the building using door #1 or #7, place boxes on the cart across from the Family Life Center (gym). It is best to use a copy paper box or a similar size.

ADOPT-A-BOX Shopping List:

1 can of soup
1 can of green beans
1 can of corn
1 additional canned vegetable
2 cans of fruit
1 can of yams
1 can/jar of applesauce
1 can of cranberry sauce
1 box of stuffing
2 cans of tuna or 1 container each of peanut butter & jelly
1 box of spaghetti
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
1 box of mac and cheese
1 pancake mix or breakfast cereal
1 box of instant potatoes
1 box of jello gelatin
1 dessert (cake or brownie mix)

Additional food donations from the list are always accepted to fill other boxes.

HELP MOVE FOOD & BOXES TO THE FLC

Saturday, November 16 at 6pm and Sunday, November 17 at 12:15pm – come to Pearce’s main lobby and help us move donated food items, adopt-a-boxes, and empty boxes from various storage areas, to the Family Life Center where everything will be organized and packed.

HELP PACK BOXES

Thursday, November 21 at 9:30am – come to the Family Life Center (gym) and help us pack over 800 Thanksgiving boxes, starting at 9:30am until all boxes are packed (typically 1-2 hours).

Empty Boxes

EMPTY BOXES

Bring empty boxes to Pearce – a copy paper box is the ideal size and can be used for Adopt-a-Box donations.

PRAY

We appreciate your prayers! Pray for food and financial donations to meet or exceed our goal of 1,150 food boxes. Pray for those who are giving of their time and resources, being the salt and light as Jesus calls us, making this ministry happen. Pray for those who will receive the food boxes, that through this simple act of kindness, they would know how much God loves them and cares for them.

FINANCIAL DONATIONS

The turkeys have been fully funded this year, but you can make a financial donation to Pearce Church to help us purchase other items to complete a box. Place a check in the offering box as you leave a worship service, drop a check in the mail or our outdoor dropbox (just outside the café entrance #7). Make checks out to Pearce Church with “Thanksgiving Food Ministry” on the memo line.

Want to learn more on how you can help serve this ministry? Fill out this form and we’ll get back to you soon. Please note: at this point, recipients of Thanksgiving boxes have been pre-selected and we are unable to fulfill any further requests.

Special thanks to the network of food donations and volunteers from the following organizations:

Pearce Church

Foodlink

Browncroft Community Church

Greece & Webster schools

The Charles Finney school

Rochester Family Mission and neighborhoods

Roberts Wesleyan University

“

A single mom of two had recently moved to the Rochester area. She was expecting a check in the mail to get them through their first month here. As time went by, their food ran out and the check still hadn't come. She prayed to God for help. She didn't know it, but someone had put her name on our list to receive a Thanksgiving box. When that box was delivered, she began sobbing and praising God for answering her prayers. She now had enough food to feed her family for at least one week!

“

A disabled man was sitting in a chair in his apartment. Aside from his chair and a mattress on the floor, the apartment was empty. When the box of food was delivered, he was very appreciative. He knew that his wife would be grateful, too, but she was out working at the time. Her job was to collect cans every day and turn them into the store. That simple box of food met a real need.

“

One woman received a box because someone had submitted her name. When the box was delivered, she began crying. She actually had food, but her husband had passed away the month before and this was such a beautiful act of kindness. She knew others cared about her, and she would not forget that.