For 45 years, United Methodist Churches in Arkansas have participated in Ingathering, a 200,000 More Reasons state-wide service event to replenish disaster relief supplies and feed the hungry. This year’s Ingathering included a month-long collection event, entitled Collectober, during which churches and districts were given a challenge to “one-up” themselves by collecting more disaster kits and food than last year.
During the month of October, Faith United Methodist Church in Fort Smith collected canned food items that will be used in Thanksgiving and Christmas food boxes for students at Morrison Elementary School. In 2021, Faith UMC collected $775 for their “Bucks for Books” campaign, which purchased 152 books. So their goal for this year’s collection event was to one-up themselves by collecting 153 items of food.
The Faith UMC community far surpassed just “one-upping” themselves – they more than tripled last year’s collection. They received 524 donated items, totaling 484 pounds of food!
Ingathering will be held on November 12 at the Arkansas Food Bank in Little Rock. Learn more about this year’s event here.