Church members asked to tackle donation challenge
And he’s off to a sizeable start. Dailey’s congregation, some 8,500 strong, has already collected 2.5 tons of food and hygiene items to assist the Irving nonprofit in its outreach to the community.
“When we were thinking about our Easter weekend this year, we wanted to do more than provide worship services,” said Dailey. “We wanted to figure out a way to serve.
“The Bible says we live with great expectations, or living hope. We want to be dispensers of hope. So we decided to partner with Irving Cares, such a powerful
organization in this community. Last year they reached out to 37,000 people, which is about 18 percent of the city.“We asked them what their greatest needs were. We came up with a list of things they run out of, and our church decided to ask people to bring them to one of our eleven services this weekend.”
The goal: to collect six tons of food and hygiene items to meet Irving’s needs. Ten percent of the offerings collected over the Easter weekend will also be designated for cash assistance to Irving Cares, as Calvary commits to “not just come to church, but be the church,” as Dailey termed it.
Calvary Church is collecting the following specific items to donate to Irving Cares:
- Hygiene items: toilet paper, shampoo, deodorant, bar soap and powdered laundry detergent
- Boxed macaroni and cheese
- Oatmeal
- Canned chili
- Hamburger or Tuna Helper meals
- Canned beef stew
- Small plastic jars of peanut butter
- Small plastic jars of jelly
- Canned chicken
- Canned tuna
- Any type canned soup.
In addition, worshippers who bring a bag of food and hygiene items will also earn a raffle ticket with a chance to win staycations, IPADs, flat screen TVs, etc. 