Latter-day Saints make food donation

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently coordinated of 125,000 pounds of food — representing more than 100,000 meals — that will be distributed by local agencies throughout Oklahoma to individuals and families.

Latter-day Saints made donations in September to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City and the Tulsa Dream Center in Tulsa.

A quarter of the donated food will go to the St. John Missionary Baptist Church Food Pantry, part of a longstanding relationship between St. John and Latter-day Saints.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has coordinated efforts to help Oklahomans by donating more than 475,000 pounds of food, coordinating mask-making efforts for hospitals, hosting numerous community blood drives and organizing volunteers across the state through JustServe.org. Service to God and neighbors, regardless of belief, is a critical tenet of the faith group.

“While we all would like to put COVID behind us, we know it is still affecting the physical and financial health of Oklahomans,” Becky Wilkinson, Oklahoma communications director for the Latter-day Saints, said in a news release. “We believe that fasting and giving an offering of those funds allows us to magnify the effort of each individual as we unite together with the common purpose to care for our neighbors in need.”

Funding for the donations is provided by Latter-day Saints. On the first Sunday of each month, Latter-day Saints in Oklahoma and throughout the world go without two consecutive meals and donate the money they would have spent on food to support food and hygiene supplies, such as the ones recently donated in Oklahoma.