It’s In The Bag Ministry

In 2009, The Leadership Team (TLT) under Pastor Bill’s encouragement started a lunch bag ministry to the clients of the Fuquay-Varina Emergency Food Pantry on Sundays at noon at the Food Pantry location. This ministry has only missed one Sunday in that time, due to snow and ice.

TLT decided at the beginning that the lunch we offered would have a sandwich of good value protein of chicken, turkey, ham, or beef with condiments of mustard and mayo packets. The other items in the lunch were a bottle of water or a juice box, a snack of crackers or chips, a piece of in season fruit—bananas, apples, oranges. 

After we developed our relationship with the Food Pantry, they asked us to take on a new task. The Food Pantry receives groceries from the local stores on Friday and Saturday. Some of the items will not be good on their next operational day of Tuesday, but would be good to hand out on Sunday. We agreed and along with the lunches, we have been distributing produce, bread and bakery goods, and other grocery items each weekend to our guests.

The It’s In The Bag (IITB) budget is outside the church budget. It operates solely by donations of items, money, and time. Our lunches cost about $3.00 each depending on sales of the items needed. The set up crew comes early each Sunday morning to set up tables, get out items, and count many of the items. After service, many members work together to prepare the sandwiches and the bag lunches. Church members give weekly, monthly or occasionally. Some do random acts of shopping as they find a sale of items we use.

We are so pleased that God has used us this way for all these years, answering the command of Jesus: To Feed My Sheep.