On Dec. 5, members of the Taylor ward showed up at the Taylor Church building to load roughly 3,500 pounds of food into the Shepherd’s Heart Food Pantry truck. Many hands made light work, and within 30 minutes, all the food was loaded and ready to be taken to the warehouse.
Shepherd’s Heart is a food pantry as well as thrift shop and helps feed 350 families each week on average.
“I have seen them feed as many as 800 families in one week,” Eric Shuster, a regular volunteer for the Shepherd’s Heart said.
For five years now, the Shepherd’s Heart has blessed many families with meals, clothing as well as help with utilities.
In June, the Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints delivered 24 pallets of non-perishable items to pantries in Williamson County from its distribution center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
As the summer turned into fall, nonperishable items from the Central Texas Foodbank ran into shortages, rendering lean many pantry shelves across Central Texas—including those in Williamson County. Because of the high demand for food across the United States and beyond, the church distribution center in Salt Lake City was unable to send a truck to Williamson County.
To help local pantries, ecclesiastical leaders in the Round Rock East Stake decided to rally support among the members of nine of its wards to gather food for five pantries – Shepherd’s Heart; Salvation Army; Love, Serve, Feed; Hutto Resource Center; and Helping Hands.
In each case the target was to gather approximately 3,500 pounds of non-perishable food for each pantry comprised of specific canned and dry goods— those most used by the pantries for distribution to local individuals and families.
The nine wards informed members of the targets and allowed all to sign up, purchase the goods on their own and deliver the goods to local churches of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
