Volunteers gather to pray before starting distribution

It’s no secret Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YLM) has been beyond blessed with community partners, such as Quality Fruits and Vegetables Company (Quality) and the El Pasoans Fighting Hunger (EPFH), who help provide food for close to two hundred families every week.  This has especially been needed during this COVID-19 season.

Over 200 boxes of healthy produce were given out

Due to restrictions and city mandates, the Food Pantry at YLM changed gears and began a Drive-Thru Food Pantry in mid-March.  As the weeks went by, God continued to provide food in abundance, but what is delightful is how God keeps increasing this abundant gift.

“When Quality began donating food, we went every Thursday, at 10 in the morning,” Joaquin, member of San Pablo and a volunteer at YLM, still feels amazement every week to see how God provides, “The first time, they filled up half the truck.  Second time, the whole truck bed.  The third week, they filled up the truck bed and then stacked upward.  Now, we are asked to go twice, sometimes three times a week.  It amazes me how God keeps providing!”

Boxes filled with colorful produce

Everyone at YLM, from volunteers to the CEO, get a joy out of giving everything away every Saturday morning.  As volunteers fill up boxes to overflowing with cucumbers, lemons, lettuce, potatoes, celery, mushrooms, squash, and so much more, Joaquin’s voice can be heard over all the chatter, “Double up on everything, if you have to!  Nothing goes back to the cold room!”

People blessed abundantly through distribution

For the members of Faith Lutheran Church from Pierre, South Dakota, who came to build a house in Kilometro 30, helping with the Drive-Thru Food Pantry several hours prior to their flight out of El Paso, it was a new experience to witness, even though they’d been helping for the last three years.

“I love the way this is done,” Cassandra, a young woman getting ready to start her second year of college, shared during a slow-down period, “There’s something for each person to do, and there’s so much food!”

With so many different items to give out, people pick something to do, an item to distribute among the boxes line-assembly style.  As the morning goes by, the working people keep up their pace by praising God for the cherries and look at these strawberries!  Oh, onions and mushrooms to sauté and put over chicken!

What a wonderful experience for those who serve to see how God provides for His children.  Even more beautiful are the smiles of the people as they pop trunks, or back doors, open and see boxes laden with healthy produce and fruit, gallons of milk, cartons of egg, and bags filled with the basic necessities of rice and beans, given to them with joy and a blessed send-off.