This past Friday, River of Joy Lutheran Church held a hunger concert in Prior Lake. Community came together to hear amazing musical performances from Heatherlyn and Micah Witham and Ben Rosenbush...and to feed their hungry neighbors through food and monetary donations. As a result, 40,000 people in our global community will eat. Hundreds more in our immediate community will benefit from the 750 pounds of food that were donated.

What a perfect picture of how it should be: people coming together as a community to care for their own.

Soulstice and the larger Berean Baptist community are beginning something simple in concept and huge in impact: connecting those with needs to those with resources of all kinds. The new effort is called "Give Yourself Away '08," and kicks off with a Robbie Seay Band concert on Sunday, September 14 at Berean. All you need to get in the door? Something you can give away. Anything. Food. Grocery gift cards. Diapers. Anything to care for our neighbors--those right here in our community.

You can register other things you can give away--or needs you have--on their website at giveyourselfaway08.com. Take the time to read their story and their vision. And then wander into your attic or peruse your pantry or consider that envelope of cash in the dresser drawer, and consider if maybe there's something, something, that you can give away to contribute to this picture of community as it should be: neighbors helping neighbors. People caring for people, meeting each other's needs and lifting one another up.

Hello Friends!

This post is contributed by Beth and Nels Danburg :

Summer Status on Food Donations in a small neighborhood in Burnsville

Hi! This is a quick note from Beth and Nels Danburg in Burnsville, MN. Both my son and I were getting discouraged this past spring when we would try and collect food and would get few or no results. However, this summer has been a different story but it does involve some creativity. In June we bought small plastic peanut butter jars and typical brown lunch bags. We put the peanut butter in the bags with a message "Share your favorite treat that goes with PB sandwiches. Summer means lots of lunches needed for out-of-school kids". We received 100% participation and every house gave us a fairly LARGE sized bag of food along with our peanut butter. We were only hoping for an additional item to be in our small brown bags! In July, we attached a message of "Quench our Thirst" to packets of Kool-Aid and we again received a large collection of juices, waters, etc.

We also pass out "Thank you" tokens each time a house participates. Such tokens are usually bought at the dollar store--post-it pads, magnet clips, etc.

SO, in sum, a little energy and creativity does go a long way.

Beth Danburg & Nels Danburg
Burnsville, MN

We warmly invite you to share your ideas so we can pass them on. If you have something to share, please e-mail us at engage@projectfoodstock.org.