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I call them food banks for lack of a better term, but over the last couple of months many places have distributed food packages from funding for the COVID19 relief bill. As I understand it, most of the food comes from when the USDA paid farmers for produce and other products that were going to waste, so they wound up owning a bunch of food they had to distribute or it would go to waste. Distribution chains for places like restaurants, schools, cruise ships, etc were basically shut down so there was a lot of juggling to figure out how to put the food to good use at a time when a lot of Americans were suffering economically. We have picked up food at a couple of these distribution events and were pleased to see that one or two places have had Deseret labelled food such as cans or pasta. A couple of days ago picked up some at a local mega-church affiliated with the Assembly of God. When we got home and unpacked the box, we found a few cans of Deseret labelled food, but on the back where it says, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they put their own stick-on label with the name of their own church. They didn’t bother putting their sticker on any of the other food, of course, only the ones that indicated the LDS church.
A small and petty thing perhaps, but still frustrating.
I think the church has done quite a bit in the way of donations to foodbanks during the pandemic, as is often the case. They don’t tend to brag about it a lot, which I appreciate, but it has not gone completely unnoticed either. I agree, it was petty for the other church to cover the label with their own. Undoubtedly there are curious people who will look under the new label to see why it was covered (I would have
:eh: ). I don’t know if it’s super important that the church gets “credit” for what it’s doing, but at the same time it doesn’t seem right that another church may take credit (or try to hide that it came from the Mormons). I remember reading an article many years ago about a situation where the church was sending aid to a predominantly Muslim country after some sort of natural disaster. The place accepted the aid but it had to not have any labels or markings indicating it came from us (or any Christian organization as I recall). The church complied and still sent the food and supplies.FWIW, it is also my understanding that the church does not have the logistic infrastructure to distribute most emergency aid on its own and partners with other organizations that do, such as the Red Cross, Catholic Charities, and the Salvation Army. We had a major flood in our area a few years back and each of those agencies trucked and distributed church goods to anyone who needed it.
My family has also recently received food from a local food bank. Our food bank is run in partnership with the Catholic Church and appears to be supplied primarily from local grocery stores (many of the items still have the labels, price tags, and bar codes attached). I assume that the grocery store gets a tax break for the food it donates. I am 100% supportive of our church partnering with other organizations to do good.
Last winter the Salvation Army asked our church to provide turkey dinner boxes for thanksgiving. I was present when there was a passionate discussion of the possibility of the Salvation Army taking credit for our donations. In the end, each family assigned to donate a turkey dinner was given a box to fill. Each box was emblazoned with “Happy Thanksgiving from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints” written in big black letters.
I am sure there is a delicate balance in partnering with other organizations but still being recognized for doing good.
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