This year marked the 14th year the Monroe Trailblazers Pathfinder Club has scattered throughout the entire town of Monroe, Wisconsin, for their annual food drive. The Pathfinders are not the only ones who take part in this event. The entire church looks forward to it and helps with this much-needed outreach.Our average collection is about 2,400 lbs of food. This year marked a new record at 2,890 lbs of food.
A week before the food drive, Farm & Fleet donated 2000 bags. Each bag then has a note stapled to it explaining about the food drive for the food pantry and a phone number to call if anyone has questions. The afternoon of Sabbath November 7 found the Pathfinders, Adventurers, and Monroe SDA church members divided into teams to pace a bag on every house possible. One week later, on November 14, the same teams went out and collected the bags of food. The food is then placed in a trailer. Our Pathfinder director, Uncle Mike, takes all the food to the local food pantry and they weigh the goods. The food pantry has come to rely on our donations this time of year and they were happy to see us.
I think what is most fun about this outreach is that the whole church works together to help the Pathfinder and Adventurer kids. It’s also very fulfilling to know that we found a needed outreach for this community and they count on us. The residents of the Monroe community have been generous and it is their bountiful support that keeps us going!
Article provided by Caryn Erb, Monroe Seventh-day Adventist Church