By Brad Thompson
Zionsville Presbyterian Church, with volunteers from St. Mary and St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church and Shepherd Community Center in Indianapolis, along with others in the community, recently completed a food drive to provide meals to schoolchildren over the holiday season. Shepherd Community Center on the near-east side of Indianapolis will be distributing the meals. In the neighborhoods around Shepherd, as many as eight out of 10 children rely on school meals for adequate nutrition. When school is not in session, meals may not be a sure thing for some children.
About 221 ZPC congregation members each took a large box, or tote, home and filled it with adequate food for two weeks. Some members purchased food items in bulk. When the boxes were filled, volunteers emptied them in one large room at ZPC. Multi-serving boxes were broken down into individual servings. The boxes were then refilled so that each child would have a variety of food.
St. Mary and St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church sent some seventh- and eighth-grade members to help with the boxing process. The students, working alongside ZPC members and others from the community, emptied and refilled the boxes, making sure each Shepherd Community student would have a mixture of nutritious staples and a few treats as well. The goal was to blend the types of foods so that the meals would be more enjoyable.
The totes were then loaded in a truck and delivered to Shepherd Community Center, where the staff and volunteers will make sure that the families most in need get the food during the Christmas holiday.
For more photos, visit https://www.flickr.com/photos/12221948@N06/albums/72157676553387568.
