Three faiths, two locations, 100,000 meals for Tucson's hungry

By Johanna Willett Arizona Daily Star

Johanna Willett | This Is Tucson
Reporter
Jan 5, 2017
Jan 5, 2017 Updated Sep 21, 2018

Sadie Twilling, 5, reaches up to pour rice into a funnel as Madison Leach, 18, holds it steady during the fourth St Paul’s UMC 50,000 Meal Pack-a-Thon benefitting children and families in need at the Gospel Rescue Mission and Tucson Salvation Army. More than 400 volunteers packaged 114 boxes as they stood at stations filling packages of either rice and beans or cheese and macaroni inside the school’s gymnasium at , 8051 E Broadway Blvd. Each organization will receive 57 boxes each to hand out to people in need. The photo was taken on Sunday, December 28, 2014, in Tucson, Ariz. Photo by A.E. Araiza/ Arizona Daily Star
A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star 2014

Get packing.

That’s what volunteers from a few United Methodist churches, a Jewish temple and a Muslim community center will be doing Sunday, Jan. 8.

St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 8051 E. Broadway, and the Muslim Community Center of Tucson, 5100 N. Kevy Place, will each host volunteers to pack 100,000 meals for Southern Arizona agencies that serve the hungry.

Each location will pack 50,000 meals, and the two teams are fronting $12,500 each to cover the cost of the meals through the national organization The Outreach Program, said Nancy Scott, one of three coordinators for the St. Paul’s pack-a-thon. Donations are welcome.

This is the fifth year of meal packing for St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, and Catalina United Methodist Church joined last year, inviting other faith communities, such as Temple Emanu-El and the Muslim Community Center, to join .

“We see every day the need in Tucson to feed these hungry people, so we knew if we expanded our outreach to invite other churches, we could have a bigger effect,” Scott said.

St. Paul’s United Methodist hopes for 400 volunteers, and the Muslim Community Center expects at least 200.

“I think it’s in the tradition of all three faiths to serve God by serving others,” says Rula Khalidi, a Muslim Community Center coordinator. “By doing that together and doing that when the focus is on the less fortunate, I think it makes us all feel closer to each other and to God.”