Sharing Meals and Hope in Baltimore

This news report from Fox in Baltimore, MD features a ministry partnership that includes Jay Baylor, a priest within the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic. After viewing the video, please read the call for prayer and other support. 

We need help- each 10,000 lbs of food delivered by the truck ministry [mentioned in the news article] costs $500. This feeds approximately 200 families in a neighborhood in which 80% of families are below the poverty line and experiencing great need in the current financial crisis caused by all the business closures.

We are also partnering with a catering company that will be assembling high quality healthy meals daily that we will deliver to families and seniors in need. We don’t know yet what the cost to the catering will be, but they are hiring out of work chefs and cooks to prepare the meals.  

This is a Matthew 25:35-36 moment for the church to stretch out and serve beyond our buildings, beyond our own circles and beyond our comfort. This crisis is a financial disaster for the poor and marginalized. Unlike a natural disaster that is limited in the geographic scope, this disaster is hitting the whole nation, really the whole world all at once. The disaster is literally just across the street or just across town from most of us. The people who were just barely making it are no longer making it. They don’t have the reserves to go stock up. They don’t have savings to get by if they lose even one day’s work. They can’t pay for childcare since their kids are out of school.

The need will get worse. Who will come to rescue? Who will come to lift them up? Who will share what they have for those who have lost everything? We who are comfortable or wealthy must find ways to help those who are poor in this time of great need.

If churches or individuals want to give to our efforts they can give on our website. I would urge everyone who has enough in this time of crisis to find a way to share with those who are suffering.

The Rev. Jay Baylor leads Apostles in the City, Baltimore, MD.