Woodbury's King of Kings Church Collects 7,680 Pounds of Food During March Drive

In response to a plea from their pastor, members of King of Kings Lutheran Church collected 7,680 pounds of food for the Christian Cupboard Emergency Food Shelf during the month of March.

The Woodbury church has been a supporter of the Christian Cupboard for the past 30 years, but collecting this amount of food in one month was unprecedented for King of Kings.

The first weekend in March, during each worship service, Pastor Jon Larson shared with the congregation that families in Woodbury are choosing between buying groceries and paying their mortgage, seniors are skipping meals to pay for medication, and children are going to school hungry, according to a release. He asked the congregation to respond immediately—to go buy groceries and return to the church within one hour.

“After the first worship service, I stood at the front door of the church not knowing if anyone would return,” Larson said in the release. “It was like inviting your friends to a birthday party and hoping someone would show up.”

But the response was overwhelming. Carload after carload returned to the church and dropped off more than 400 bags of groceries. Larson laughed, “We caused quite a stir at the local grocery stores that weekend.”

The food drive continued throughout the month of March.

Nearly everyone at the church got involved. The high school youth spent six hours sorting, boxing, and weighing food donations. This was especially notable since the youth who were sorting the food had been fasting for more than a day as part of a World Vision 30-hour famine retreat.

"It really gave me a better understanding of what it means to be hungry," freshman Josh Bremseth said in the release.

Meanwhile, the King of Kings retired men’s group loaded up pickup trucks and vans and delivered the donations to the Christian Cupboard, located at Woodbury Lutheran Church.

Said Larson added: “It's heartbreaking to know we have neighbors who are hungry. So we will continue to support and pray for the work being done by the Christian Cupboard."

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