Children learn the value of serving others through the YLMHC Food Pantry

The opportunity for children, teenagers, and adults to work together in achieving the common goal of serving a community in need, is offered every Saturday morning through Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care’s (YLMHC) Emergency Food Pantry Drive-Thru. Zion Lutheran Church from downtown El Paso is a congregation that sends their adults, along with children and teenagers, to serve through the YLMHC’s Food Pantry Drive-Thru, working side by side with other volunteers.

Meeting new people of all ages and life experiences

The early morning start of 6 can be daunting for some people, but these volunteers, the youngest about five years old, come in eager and willing to complete the necessary tasks before the Food Pantry Drive-Thru begins at 7am. The two hours that follow are ones filled with laughter, conversations between people who don’t know each other, opportunities to serve and help one another, and the satisfaction of filling up vehicle after vehicle with boxes of produce, non-perishable food items, canned goods, and other food stuff.

There is a task for everyone and teamwork achieves the goal of serving others

Zion Lutheran Church, along with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod Rocky Mountain District, worked to bring the Gospel into the Lower Valley Ysleta community through the planting of a church back in 1981. In 1982, a food ministry was established, where people received cheese or milk after church.

Today, 41 years later, multiple partnerships allow for a wider variety of food to be given out, as well as a variety of tasks and jobs for volunteers of all ages to accomplish. The latest change, brought on by the pandemic in 2020, helped streamline the process of providing these ample food baskets to about 200 families.

For volunteers who give their Saturday mornings to serve the surrounding community of YLMHC, the joyful blessing of helping others in their time of need is one they carry into their families, their congregations, and their neighborhoods.

We continue to serve people in need by providing supplemental food baskets every Saturday morning, from 6am to 9am. If you would like to volunteer with YLMHC, call (915) 858-2588 for more information. You can also reach out to us to schedule your family, friends, co-workers, organization, or congregation and adopt the Food Pantry Drive-Thru for a Saturday morning.