FELLOWSHIP CHURCH DONATES MONEY TO GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY

The Rev. Reginald W. Sharpe, Jr., pastor of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, and Kate Maehr, executive director and CEO of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, at the check presentation. Photos courtesy of Fellowship Missionary
The Rev. Reginald W. Sharpe, Jr., pastor of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, and Kate Maehr, executive director and CEO of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, at the check presentation. Photos courtesy of Fellowship Missionary

Fellowship Church donates money to Greater Chicago Food Depository

Because of COVID-19, many churches in Chicago haven’t held services in a month. That is the case for Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, which is located on 4543 S. Princeton. But, the Reverend Reginald W. Sharpe, Jr., pastor of Fellowship, has still been challenging his congregation.

Sharpe has been challenging his church with this little quote, “while we can’t have church traditionally, we can still be the church consistently,” he said. “And so, for me, what it means to be the church is to directly impact the community.”

Sharpe said while conducting his 7 a.m. prayer call, he had the Greater Chicago Food Depository on his mind. And, he also thought about the number of African Americans in the city who face food insecurity.

“As we were praying, something hit me and was like, ‘you can raise $10,000 and sow it and donate it to the Chicago Food Depository and you can do 10 grand and make it an Easter gift’, “ he said. “The word resurrection means resurgence,” he said and he had the thought in mind to tell the people, “that this is going to be our ‘Easter Resurrection’ gift,” that they could give back to the community. He said the idea was, “to create a Resurrection instead of just celebrating the Resurrection.”

Not only was the church able to raise $10,000, they raised $20,000 and donated it to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Sharpe said being able to raise the money was due to people’s hearts and pitching in to help. He quoted Ephesians 3:20.

“It blew my mind, I was excited,” he said. “It really reminded me that God exceeds our expectations and even in this season, people are still full of generosity, full of love and full of compassion.”

Sharpe said he has seen acts of generosity and kindness, through churches holding services online to people fighting for social justice and equality. He said the Greater Chicago Food Depository was overwhelmingly gracious and thankful for the gift.

“I think what made their gratitude so high was, we’re in a global pandemic and most people are reaching for self-preservation. And to see this level of generosity in a global pandemic was shocking,” he said.

While Fellowship Baptist Church has been a partner with the Greater Chicago Food Depository for years, the organization was happy to receive the donation. Greg Trotter, spokesman for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, said Fellowship does excellent work in their community with their food pantry.

“They raised $20,000 in a pretty short period of time. It’s really amazing. And, we’re just deeply humbled and grateful for this gift,” said Trotter. It’ll make a “big difference,” he said.

Trotter said at this time, with food pantries struggling to stay open, monetary donations are the most helpful. He said much of the money will go towards buying food to go into the food boxes Greater Chicago Food Depository provides.

“It’s a significant and costly effort. We really need donations to help support this effort. Because we’re a food bank, we buy food at scale. And, so we can really stretch those dollars,” he said. “We’re able to use the donations to buy what’s most needed to go into those boxes and to just help families in need during this time.”

For more information about the Greater Chicago Food Depository, visit www.chicagosfoodbank.org.

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