Church Donation to ACO Helps Thousands

Featured Photo: Missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pose with food delivery — “This is what 20, 711 pounds of food looks like.” Photo by Kathy Walters.

In the freezing early morning hours, the semi-truck is loaded with its precious cargo. By 7 a.m., with the sun just peeking up over the majestic Rocky Mountains, Jeff Cobbley takes his seat behind the wheel and starts the 21-hour journey from Salt Lake City, Utah to Allen, a smallish town north of Dallas, Texas. Inside his truck is a miracle; the result of numerous volunteer hours and the financial generosity of countless church members who’ve donated their time and money to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for use in their Humanitarian Services department. The cargo? Cases upon cases of food- gravely needed by people in this part of Texas who are struggling to feed their families during this difficult time. 

As the truck drives into the parking lot of the Allen Community Outreach warehouse, there’s a palpable excitement in the air. Missionaries from the Church are lined up, eager to help sort and bag the food once it’s unloaded. Space is cleared on the floor, waiting for the delivery and a forklift stands ready to help bring the pallets into the warehouse. The semi backs up, Jeff throws open the doors, and the forklift zooms into action. Load after load of beans, soup, peanut butter, pancake mix, applesauce, and other staples come piling in. Everyone is smiling. 

“The demand in this area has doubled this past year,” Allen Community Outreach Food director, Geoben Johnsen explains as we watch the cases stack up.  20,711 pounds of food now sit in the middle of the warehouse waiting to be distributed to the people of Allen and surrounding communities. 

A delivery like this makes a huge difference! With what we have here, we can give out over 17,000 meals to people in our community. This will really help a lot of people!

Geoben Johnsen, Allen Community Outreach Food Director

“We provide food to between 450 to 500 families each week, plus 120 families in Branch, a small neighboring town. We use what we have and share what we can with neighboring communities,” he says proudly, citing some of the facilities they help distribute food to, such as  The Samaritan Inn, which helps homeless families gain independence. “A delivery like this makes a huge difference! With what we have here, we can give out over 17,000 meals to people in our community. This will really help a lot of people!”

This isn’t the first delivery Jeff and others have made to this part of Texas, courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Humanitarian Services. Literally, tons of food and supplies have been sent all over the country and around the world to assist with a variety of critical necessities. 

In a letter released on Tuesday, April 14, 2020, the First Presidency of the Church stated, “We have been taught to be ‘anxiously engaged’ in relieving suffering and caring for those in need. To date, we have approved over 110 COVID-19 relief projects in 57 countries. Most of these are done with trusted partners from humanitarian agencies, health ministries, and hospitals, which allows us to use our resources—including food, hygiene products, personal protective equipment, medical equipment, cash, and other commodities—in places where they can do the most good,” they added.

As the pandemic and the resulting economic instability continues, so does the need for additional aid. If you would like to learn more about the Church Humanitarian Services click HERE or if you want to help by donating to the Allen Community Outreach, click HERE.