Over the past few months God has opened doors for us to connect with our inner-city community in ways we never expected due to COVID-19.
Watch the video.
One of our connections is with a new public school just blocks from our campus. We asked staff, “How can we collaborate with you to serve your students and their families, especially during this pandemic?” They told us, “The main need is food,” before explaining that 97 percent of their students are on the free- or reduced-lunch program.
Many of the students’ parents have lost jobs due to COVID-19 and don’t have transportation to the regional distributions the public-school system sponsors. So, school staff asked if we could help distribute food to 200–300 students’ families once a week.
God Provides!
Our team of six began praying and calling food distributors, suppliers, and grocers. We finally connected with a food broker that transports produce from local farmers to the market. When we told them of our desire to help the students, they loved the idea and offered to give us 8,000 pounds—four tons—of fresh produce every week!
We could not believe what we were hearing. Only God does things like this. Now, every Wednesday through June we are collaborating with the schools in our community to distribute food to these students and their families.
God continues to provide in amazing ways!
Our team has persisted in making calls to food distributors and suppliers to obtain more donations to help our community. God has provided miraculously.
At our first distribution we received about seven pallets of food to assist 844 people. The next time we received two and a half pallets and served 1,000-plus. You do the math: Only God can work stuff out like that.
Thank you for your continued support and prayers, it means more than we could ever express!
Adapted from a report by Matt and Teri Perrotto, Alliance workers serving with ENVISION Miami.