‘Serving the hungry’ still top goal of CUMC Mission Blitz
This year’s Mission Blitz, where church members take part in a number of missions, took place Friday, Jan. 17, through Monday, Jan. 20.
“Serving the hungry” is the fulfillment one volunteer said he received from the mission. “The church likes to provide food for folks who have food insecurities.”
Kristin Johnson and Breanna Wells, both with Beauty for Ashes in Lenoir City, stepped in to help with the Crop Drop because “we decided to give back to them.”
Part of Mission Blitz is a Crop Drop project, in which the church “receives a tractor trailer load with 40,000 pounds of sweet potatoes,” explained Jane Currin, CUMC mission director. Those potatoes were donated by area farmers.
“These sweet potatoes are ones that are too big, too small and misshapen, that have been graded out and are not the first that they sell at the grocery store,” she said. “These are the grades C and D — big, old, ugly sweet potatoes. They’re still good to eat, but they’re just not the right size to fit everybody’s perfect sweet potato image.”
Volunteers arrived Friday before the truck pulled in with sweet potatoes, which they find in boxes on big pallets, for them to place in 8- to 10-pound bags and weigh before the produce is distributed to about 35 food pantries in several counties in three states.
The food pantries picked up the sweet potatoes on Friday night and Saturday morning, Nov. 18.
