Every year for the past 13 years, during the month of August, Lakeview Community Church holds an “August Challenge.” Members of the church and people from the local community are challenged to donate a specific food item each year, like cans of tuna or jars of peanut butter, to the Greece Ecumenical Food Shelf.
This year, when everything shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, August Challenge organizers Linda Viney and Joan Marvin had a problem. Could they even do an August Challenge this year? Should they cancel? Instead of folding, they decided to try something new.
This year, they asked people to give monetary donations to the food shelf. They set the bar high for the small congregation, at $2,000. Friends, neighbors, and local companies jumped in to help. On the final Saturday of August, people from the neighborhood stopped by the church parking lot to share their donations. “We had people coming in their cars and even on their bikes to drop off donations.” Marvin said.
When it was all tallied up, over $4,500 had been raised. “I am so proud of our church family and our community for pitching in,” Pastor Steven Rodriguez said. Lots of things have been shut down during the pandemic, but love and kindness have not been shut down.
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