By Mark Swanson, Pastor, Wiley Heights Covenant Church
Early on in the pandemic there was a number that brought the seriousness of this global event into perspective. The World Food Program stated a likely doubling of those facing famine, raising that number to 265 million individuals. The reality of that number weighed heavy, as it should. Yet we knew there were people who were working hard to make a difference and minimize the impact in regards to global hunger and malnourishment.
In West Pokot, a county in Kenya, there is a wonderful organization called Jitokeze Wamama Wafrika that is supported through Covenant World Relief and their partner Growing Hope Globally. Jitokeze over the years has empowered women and girls in sustainable agriculture, community development, and the development of entrepreneurial skills. They do this work, by assisting in the development of self-help groups, sharing resources to lend and support one another. They also have a residential program that trains girls in tailoring. In many ways their work came to a halt in the beginning of the pandemic, but they quickly pivoted, and became a major mask provider in their community.
Since 2014 Sharing the Harvest, a project initiated by Wiley Heights Covenant Church (Yakima, Washington) has been raising resources through the selling apples to churches in the Pacific Northwest Conference to benefit projects that work to alleviate hunger and malnourishment, like Jitokeze. Part of that work has included our Packing Day, which includes a few hundred volunteers descending upon Wiley Heights for a day of bagging up purchased apples to return to their churches. In light of the pandemic, we knew we could not hold the same event and maintain all the necessary social-distance requirements, but we also were aware of the need.
Thankfully, one grower was able to donate all the apples for the event and assisted with the preliminary bagging. This meant, along with creating an online “shopping” platform since most churches were not meeting in person, that we could move forward. In the end we had several churches participate and transport their apples, which meant we could pass on more than $15,000 to come alongside Jitokeze in their work and help set up similar projects through Growing Hope Globally.
If you would like to learn more about Sharing the Harvest and how your church can get involved visit www.sharing-the-harvest.com.
