Have you ever seen hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of potatoes at one glance?

Through Orphan Grain Train (OGT), this awe-inspiring blessing takes place at Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YLM) at least once a year. To make the most of this large donation of sacked potatoes, YLM connected with other local organizations dedicated to helping underserved populations within the El Paso community.

The coordination of delivery from OGT and pick-up from these other organizations is crucial to ensure none of the potatoes go bad due to the current hot weather. The first Friday of September, at 6am, OGT arrived with a 53’ semi filled with 40 pallets of sacked potatoes. This equaled 40,000 pounds of potatoes!

That very same day, several organizations came by to pick up pallets of potatoes. Of the 40 pallets, 8 were taken by an organization dedicated to assisting shelters along the border of Texas. Many of these shelters are housing migrants, and these potatoes will go a long way to help provide food for them.

The Rescue Mission of El Paso, dedicated to assisting the homeless population of El Paso. Since last October, though, they rented two warehouses to house close to 250 migrants waiting to process paperwork before heading out to their destination. The 6 pallets of potatoes the Rescue Mission picked up will go a long way to help feed those seeking shelter and help from them.

El Pasoans Fighting Hunger are part of the West Texas Food Bank and have been a major supporter of the Emergency Food Program of YLM. Their task involves helping the hundreds of food pantries, small and large, throughout El Paso, as well as provide food to those suffering with food insecurity. The day the potatoes arrived, they brought their donation of food for YLM’s Saturday Food Pantry Drive-Thru, then took with them 24 pallets of potatoes.

Overall, on the day 40,000 pounds of potatoes arrived, 38,000 pounds were distributed in a matter of hours to go a long way in helping people in need. The Saturday after the load of potatoes was dropped off, YLM’s Food Pantry Drive-Thru gave out 2,000 pounds of potatoes to families coming through for the weekly distribution of food baskets.

It is through these kind of blessings where the opportunity to impact the most people possible allows for a greater display of God’s goodness!

You can help support and grow the ministry at YLM by donating today!