Food fights and church congregations don't usually go together. But this fight will see food collected rather than thrown. And there will be two winners. One will be the congregation that collects the most nonperishable items. The other will be the recipient - the Solanco Food Bank. The idea came up during a meeting between the Rev. Teresa Hughes-Martin, pastor of Zion United Church of Christ of New Providence, and the Rev. Traci Glover, pastor of Mt. Eden Evangelical Lutheran Church. "Teresa suggested a food fight," said the Rev. Glover. "I thought it would be more Christian to just stack it and count it rather that throw it," the Rev. Hughes-Martin said. She also knows the food bank needs contributions after the holidays. Food fights and church congregations don't usually go together. But this fight will see food collected rather than thrown. And there will be two winners. One will be the congregation that collects the most nonperishable items. The other will be the recipient - the Solanco Food Bank. The idea came up during a meeting between the Rev. Teresa Hughes-Martin, pastor of Zion United Church of Christ of New Providence, and the Rev. Traci Glover, pastor of Mt. Eden Evangelical Lutheran Church. "Teresa suggested a food fight," said the Rev. Glover. "I thought it would be more Christian to just stack it and count it rather that throw it," the Rev. Hughes-Martin said. She also knows the food bank needs contributions after the holidays. "The food bank traditionally gets to its lowest contributions after the holidays," she said. To make it more interesting, the two pastors came up with a wager. The loser, the pastor of the congregation that collects the least number of items, will have to pay a penalty in front of members of both churches. She will have to wear the football jersey of the other pastor's favorite team. The payoff will come during Zion's Donut Sunday on February 15. If the Rev. Hughes-Martin loses, she will have to wear the Rev. Glover's prized Cleveland Browns' jersey. If the Rev. Glover loses, she will have to wear the Rev. Hughes-Martin's Mean Joe Greene's Pittsburgh Steelers' jersey. The competition has encouraged some members of both congregations to vow to contribute to the other's stack of food. "There are some members of my congregation who have said they would love to see me in a Steelers jersey," the Rev. Glover said. The winning congregation will also receive a reward. "We're thinking about something like a can of Spam on a plaque," the Rev. Glover said. Both congregations are accepting donations from the community as well as their members. While they will take any nonperishable items, the pastors have a list of needed items from the food bank. Each church has a collection box available during the day. "And they're welcome to come to church and drop off the items on Sundays," the Rev. Glover said. They will also accept cash contributions. "We're counting each dollar as one point," the Rev. Hughes-Martin said. The collections began earlier this month and will wrap up on Saturday, January 31. Then the items will be counted and the winner congregation determined. "We're trying to work together for a cause greater than either congregation," the Rev. Glover said. "We're doing something for the community." "And we're going to have a bit of fun doing it," the Rev. Hughes-Martin said. "We're also going to join forces for Lenten studies. I hope this is just the beginning of cooperation between our congregations." "The food bank traditionally gets to its lowest contributions after the holidays," she said. To make it more interesting, the two pastors came up with a wager. The loser, the pastor of the congregation that collects the least number of items, will have to pay a penalty in front of members of both churches. She will have to wear the football jersey of the other pastor's favorite team. The payoff will come during Zion's Donut Sunday on February 15. If the Rev. Hughes-Martin loses, she will have to wear the Rev. Glover's prized Cleveland Browns' jersey. If the Rev. Glover loses, she will have to wear the Rev. Hughes-Martin's Mean Joe Greene's Pittsburgh Steelers' jersey. The competition has encouraged some members of both congregations to vow to contribute to the other's stack of food. "There are some members of my congregation who have said they would love to see me in a Steeler's jersey," the Rev. Glover said. The winning congregation will also receive a reward. "We're thinking about something like a can of Spam on a plaque," the Rev. Glover said. Both congregations are accepting donations from the community as well as their members. While they will take any nonperishable items, the pastors have a list of needed items from the food bank. Each church has a collection box available during the day. "And they're welcome to come to church and drop off the items on Sundays," the Rev. Glover said. They will also accept cash contributions. "We're counting each dollar as one point," the Rev. Hughes-Martin said. The collections began earlier this month and will wrap up on Saturday, January 31. Then the items will be counted and the winner congregation determined. "We're trying to work together for a cause greater than either congregation," the Rev. Glover said. "We're doing something for the community." "And we're going to have a bit of fun doing it," the Rev. Hughes-Martin said. "We're also going to join forces for Lenten studies. I hope this is just the beginning of cooperation between our congregations." Comments are closed.
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