 So I'd like to go ahead and welcome everyone to this Center for Missional Outreach Zoom call. This is one of a series of calls that this center and the other centers of the North Texas conference have been offering so that we can do our best to support and resource and equip and inspire people like you who are on the ground and in the mission field clergy and laity who are in your own way on the front lines of meeting the needs of persons in North Texas in the midst of this pandemic and so just at the very beginning I want to start by saying thank you to each of you thank you for your ministries thank you for the ways that you are offering hope and lights and feeding stomachs in the midst of this time. We're grateful for you in the ways that you are learning as you go and experimenting and and and pivoting and all and all of the ways that you are so thank you at the beginning. As you join the call, most of us I'm sure are now pretty accustomed to these calls but if you would keep yourself on mute that will help the quality of our conversation. At different points you'll definitely have the opportunity to ask questions and make comments. For that, please utilize the group chat function, you can note your questions and comments there. And I think Andrew Pfizer who's on the call. And a part of the Center for Missional Outreach will be monitoring those closely and he and Jareeda Williams Louie also on the CMO staff will be helping to facilitate our conversation as the call goes along. As a way to center ourselves, I did want to offer some words of scripture from Psalm 146 believe these words are appropriate for us as we gather to think about the ministry of meeting the need of food insecurity and how we can come alongside those who are being affected, most, most dramatically by all of the ways that our life together as a society has changed in the last couple of months. Psalm 146 begins with an acknowledgement that we cannot put our trust in human beings we cannot put our trust in leaders and institutions, but that we must put our trust in God and so picking it up in verse five. You'll hear these words of scripture and hear them as a kind of centering prayer for us. The person whose help is the God of Jacob the person whose hope rests on the Lord their God is truly happy. God, the maker of heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them. God who is faithful forever, who gives justice to people who are oppressed, who gives bread to people who are starving. The Lord who frees prisoners, the Lord who makes the blind see the Lord who straightens up those who are bent low. The Lord who loves the righteous, the Lord who protects immigrants, who helps orphans and widows, but who makes the way of the wicked twist and turn. The Lord will rule forever design your God will rule from one generation to the next. Praise the Lord. Let us pray. Holy God as we gather in this virtual space together. We give you thanks that whoever we are and wherever we are your spirit abides with us. God as we gather we do so for your sake and for the sake of those who are suffering in profound ways in the midst of this pandemic. God I acknowledge that for me I experienced this pandemic, mostly as an inconvenience, as a disruption of my norms and routines, but God I'm hardly suffering. But we lift up to you those who truly are. We ask that you would draw near to them and we ask that the conversation today would serve them, would put them at the center and would help us to be in ministry alongside them in ways that will bring them food, yes, support and encouragement, yes, and a witness to your gospel and to the truth that you are faithful and that you are for them. So God bless our time together. Thank you for those who have given of their day and time to not only be on the call but to be a part of presenting and leading. God be with them and may you speak through them to inspire and equip all of us. We offer this prayer in Jesus name. Amen. Andrew, turn it over to you. All right, thank you for your patience. Still learning this whole unmute myself business. Again, welcome to all of you. As you'll note in your chat. So hopefully, this time find a PDF of our agenda. And on that second page there's a list of other calls that will take place either this week or later this month and into the month to come. If you're aware of those calls make sure you know about those. And if it's not appearing to you in that chat box just send me a chat, and I will work on getting that a little bit later in our conversation. We want to welcome our guests who are here with us. We have a number of people who have various intersections and experiences with hunger and food insecurity, especially here in this time of coronavirus in different ways. We have Reverend Sarah Marcellus Lugan Bill who's the pastor to family and young adult ministry at Lubbers Lane. Dr. Haley Foyerbacher, Foyerbacher sorry, director of the Denton Wesley Foundation. Hi, I'm Haley Peters, who is the community relations manager for crossroads community ministries and Reverend JD Allen, senior pastor at Chapel Hill, UNC and Chelsea white who is the executive director for the Dallas Bethlehem Center. Am I missing anyone on the on our call here. If so raise your hand. A couple of folks who were not sure okay. Well thank you and I know a number of you have showed up to this call because you have an interest in or experience with of late and for a long time about conversation. Alright I'll work on that attachment. I already have a kind of interest in or doing work in food security. So I want to thank you for that. So I'd like to begin with some questions just to kind of get us started to kind of introduce where we are in our work and where that's intersecting with food insecurity. So, you know to our guests who are here with us, you know from your vantage point and hope you'll kind of share a little bit about the work that you're doing right now. Who is facing hunger and insecurity at this stage of this pandemic here in North Texas. What are you seeing whoever would like to feels ready to begin. Well I'm with the Dallas Bethlehem Center in South Dallas Fair Park, and we are seeing an all out crisis for our neighbors. We serve 75215 and 75210 and you know it's it's clearly a food desert year round and now it's just been exacerbated in our food distribution program which we run in partnership with Crossroads Community Services. We run the program year round and in the past two weeks we've seen a 445% increase in demand and it's only just begun. It's trending up and it will continue to do so. Likely long after the rest of us are you know out of the woods of the issues caused by the virus and the economic ramifications for us, South Dallas will likely continue to suffer. And Chapel Hill United Methodist Church, we're part of a network called the Metrocrest Ministries Fellowship. And we, you know, kind of like we've been doing with church we had our April meeting, which is our monthly luncheon via zoom and really just spent our time allowing the cities and local food pantries and other organizations to share what needs they're seeing in light of the pandemic. And it's really similar to what we've seen from what we've heard from the Dallas Bethlehem Center is going to email this week from the CEO of Metrocrest Services that their demand for food is up 367%. Meanwhile, North Texas Food Bank, the regional food bank that serves so many of our local food banks is running urgently low on food. And, and, but there are other major resource for getting food is getting the unpurchased groceries from the grocery stores, and there are far fewer unpurchased groceries right now for the local food banks to draw from when they need additional resources. And so we're seeing that need increase as more and more people were seeing the pantries that are really struggling with more and more people flowing their way because of economic distress. Um, so from my vantage point so my daughter goes to Nathan Adams Elementary, which 89% of the students there are at or below the poverty line so 100% of the children receive free breakfast and free lunch. And so, from my vantage point it all began with a very personal relationship. Um, this really began for for me with Greaton's classmates and the teacher reached out she knows I'm a pastor at Lovers Lane. We have a partnership with Nathan Adams. And, and there was five families that couldn't couldn't buy food. And so the teacher reached out to me and so we started getting food and so then I reached out to Randall Lucas, who is our missions pastor. And, and he was also in conversation with some of our ministry partners some of our brothers and sisters in ministry at Christ Foundry at Wesley Rankin Casa Linda, our own heart of Africa fellowships. And then we saw this need just begin to bubble bubble bubble from our own people from the people that clean our buildings from the people that take care of my children and the nursery. It just began to explode. And so that's kind of where we are seeing this is in the faces of those that we love and care for deeply. Just to echo what everyone said I'm with Crossroads. So we have a pantry and then we also distribute food to over 100 partners throughout Dallas were a redistributor of the North Texas Food Bank. So, similarly, our pantry stats are up 300% we're seeing, you know, in February, we served 150 families, we serve that in one week. Last week so the need is insane that the faces of the people that are in need is, we've never seen it before. We had someone that was let go from a major league baseball team recently that came to get food so it's. It's people that we've never seen before and we know that the need is just going to continue to increase and it's not going to stop anytime soon. I'm with the Den Wesley Foundation so my campus ministry serves the University of North Texas, North Central Texas College which has several campuses in the area and Texas Women's University. So we are seeing our numbers increase by 350%. Our food pantry is chartered by the Terran area food bank. And so we are considered essential. So we get to stay open. But we are the only on campus food pantry out of the three colleges that we serve that is continuing to operate. So you have an interesting situation when you're dealing with college students because so the college college campuses expand so rapidly that they take up a lot of commercial property that otherwise could be used for grocery stores and things like that. So a lot of college campuses, if they didn't have on campus services or really good public transportation are food desert. And that's the situation that we have in the Denton area is that the University of North Texas is a food desert. And the public transportation routes have since changed and schedules have changed ever since the outbreak and so our students are lacking transportation to the local grocery stores and they're not walkable distances. And every single campus had at least a giving shelf if not a full blown food pantry and all of them are shuttered at this point. Most of the students, the student employees have been furloughed, some of them have been have been officially let go from their positions. But the trouble with the furlough positions is that they're being placed on zero hours so they're not eligible to apply for unemployment, but they're not receiving an income anymore. And so we've got students with no income students with no transportation students who are not going to be getting the stimulus check and students who are living in a food desert. So we're trying to resource them. So one of the things that like for y'all to speak to is, I know that some have been able to note, particularly here in Dallas, the effects of historic injustices and systemic racism over decades, centuries that has created situations around the country where communities of color, especially in poor communities are affected, you know, more deeply are you seeing that and could you kind of speak to that in your own perspectives and you Chelsea already spoke to that a little bit. Yes, just to kind of continue on that. You know, I've been saying that if I didn't already fully understand what systemic racism looks like, I would now. And I think it will be undeniable from the virus standpoint alone, what we will very likely see whether we actually get these numbers or not which is a whole other, whole other call is more people in South Dallas Fair Park will get the virus of those who get it more will die of those who cover more will have long term health consequences. And that's just the immediate health issues with the virus. So with food, for example, you know, I live in Arlington and I have four different grocery stores within walking distance to where I live. When I go to the grocery store shelves are clean or cleared off and I've got for around me. I have the means and I have a vehicle to go to other stores to or on Amazon. And, and it's still slim pickings for me when you live in South Dallas in a food desert public transportation is really unsafe. They're, they're taking it anyway. They're panicking because there's one grocery store. It's expensive. It's cleared out. It's everything is just all of the regular crisis of South Dallas is just going to get worse. And it all stems from these very historical systemic issues, even with the students. The ISD initially was offering hot meals at two schools in the South Dallas area, and they actually had low turnout. The reason is because the kids don't have transportation to get there. Those kids take school buses to get to school and school buses aren't running. And so now they're trying to identify other locations including DBC to serve hot meals. I mean, you really can can go on and on just playing connect the dots of the many different ways systemic racism plays at a time like this to make things so much worse for South Dallas. Thanks, Chelsea. Others. Where are you seeing these historic lines of injustice and systemic racism kind of raising themselves. I'll kind of share what Christ United Methodist in Plano and we do a we serve food on Wednesdays at something called sandwich blessings. And we've done that for almost two years. And this is and we also partner with street side showers which many of you all may know what that is and so they're able to come get showers get fed and that kind of thing and what we've seen is just all there are folks that are homeless their resources are just absolutely gone and you know, including bathrooms, you know, not being able to get in bathrooms to clean up, you know, and to go the restroom and that kind of thing and so our homeless coalition, luckily, intervened and we actually have one park that they have opened up the bathrooms but you know just the concern of not having food but also just the dignity of these folks that are living on the streets and that's kind of with this pandemic is taking away those resources it just strips them of their dignity as well. So what you know really really disheartening. I think one of the struggles we find in our neighborhood with a rate rapidly growing with Phoenix population is we have a number of folks because they're undocumented are going to have far less access to the kind of benefits that are being offered. Snap or unemployment or stimulus checks or any of that. And so if they lose employment, if they're not job jobs that are considered not essential they're they they feel a hurt even more because they have a lot less they have a lot fewer places to turn in our community to get the assistance that they'll need. And we've been trying we've just been we've been staying in touch with the school that we're partnered with trying to help keep communication with the principal and community liaison to try and coordinate, you know as to what families may have the greatest needs in the school we've had a partnership there for a few years now. As is, you know, as many of us have in the conference in recent years, and that's helped us kind of start to identify where those needs are and how we can help fill those gaps. So, yeah, so working on the college campuses I mean college campuses are sort of a solid bowl of intersectionality right. And it really becomes a salient intersectional class issue as well. So definitely the majority of the students that we're serving are international students or people of color. We have a large number of single mothers. I myself was a parenting single mom as an undergrad a grad student and doctorate student. And I'm seeing that reflected in our, our clients and students that we serve. And the funny thing about college education especially in the context that I'm in serving in CTC UNT TWU is that college today is not like for the privilege anymore right. And these are three of the most affordable colleges that you can attend in our area. So what we see happening is because because there's this narrative and the actuality of like needing a college degree in order to get jobs and this is the narrative of how you better yourself or whatever. And we're making student loans so available and so predatory. Lots of our students are seeing going to college as the most economic option because you got a student loan right. And the student loan is going to help them get better jobs in the future but it also will provide them with better housing than what they could probably afford without that college degree. And so a lot of us end up selling our souls to go and get an education. And so here they are they are in these college campuses and the rug is just completely pulled out from underneath them. A lot of them because they're first generation students or because of just the class issues in our country, they're coming from families where they're not being funded by their parents. About 75% of my own students in my community are self supporting. And yet there's their parents still claim them on income taxes. And so because of that, the parents need to claim them on income taxes because the parents are struggling as well economically. So these students can be claimed on income taxes up to the age of 25. And that is leaving them without the means of getting their own health care without the means of being able to make their own decisions on a lot of things. A lot of them are impacted by their parents credit scores, and they're not going to be getting stimulus checks because they're being claimed by their parents. At the same time, so one of the things that's been largely frustrating to me in Pandemicville is that this is a really ignored population because we're still operating under this idea that college students are privileged and come from families of some privilege who can afford just in their kids to college. That is simply not the case. And so nobody's really looking out for this population. And they're not considered productive citizens. And so there's not a whole lot of intervention that's trying to make sure that they're doing all right right now. Also, we serve students who are have different disabilities we have deaf students in our community who access our food pantry. We are open and affirming of LGBTQ community and so we are a safe space for the trans community. And one of the things that I've been hearing throughout all of this is that has been an obstacle prior to the pandemic to getting a job and that's becoming even more of a barrier now to find you any sort of employment. If you can't hear you can't do zoom calls. Unless you have an interpreter on it. If you are trans, there are no protections in Denton to, you know, in the job place. There just aren't. If you don't have transportation, you can't drive for Uber Eats. So these are things that are intersectional and historic and class based and race based and have to do with our gender. We get single moms, sexuality, all of these things taking place on a college campus and it's being ignored because of this narrative that's been operating for the past 50 years that's no longer relevant about privilege and college. Thanks Haley anybody else want to jump in on this on this vein. From our panel. If not, you know I'm just thinking about, you know, some of these concerns that you've already raised. You know may fit this category but really what what are the top concerns for you and your organization or church right now. As you think about how to move forward in this situation with alleviating this kind of food insecurity. As you see it. Is it money is it volunteers is it all the above. I can start. So I think that crossroads our biggest concern right now is food supply. As someone else mentioned on this call the north Texas food bank is extremely low on food and in turn all of our partners are low on food in our pantry. So, you know we're trying to get as much food from outside vendors as possible but just like the grocery stores are out of food. So that's a big struggle right now, kind of your basic items like rice pasta canned items there's just none of it available so we're hoping that that'll ramp up soon. And then we're thankful to have enough volunteers and staff we've been working with shift smart to have employees on site that are helping with our pantry. I'd say you know we're all still concerned about someone getting coronavirus and not being able to do the good work that we are doing. So that's concerned we're obviously trying to keep all everybody safe and take all the precautionary measures but don't know if that's going to be enough. We'll see. Others. Andrew I know on a local church level at Chapel Hill I mean we are a we are a older church right now. And so we have a concern about our folks getting out so we're trying to do things in a way that discourages them from doing extra shopping for one the younger members of the church are volunteering to do their shopping for those who will allow us to. But also when we're providing these relief efforts we're focusing more on monetary donations that either where we can either get a list of much needed food supplies from the food banks. And we'll have a designated shopper that takes the money donated to pick up those supplies to take to the food bank or simply send the check to the food bank so they can get things but some. So Katie and. Oh gosh, I'm dropping the name here Dallas Bethlehem Center they've had more insight on how they how they feel like local churches can best facilitate that but I know I mean our concern to is our older members staying healthy so we're trying to help give them ways to help without further exposure to the virus. Before we let you go. Can you also speak from your connection with Texas impact and this kind of higher level advocacy piece and kind of what's going on politically around the state and country. Yeah, I'm the, I wasn't sure if that was for now or later but there's a there's a couple of parts that we can be working on their local churches we have pastors members and everything and I can post links on how to connect with this information and how to sign up for their advocacy work to is the main food security or food insecurity emphasis right now that Texas impact is communicating to its members. And this comes out of the, the Washington interrupt religious staff community and I'm trying, I can't remember the other organizations name off top of my head, but the biggest needs they have in terms of advocacy on the federal level is, you know, seeking and the in the upcoming stimulus bill to increase snap in a bit fits by 15%. So unemployed families working poor families will have more on hand to actually go and acquire groceries. They're seeking to increase the minimum monthly benefit from $16 to $30 and can suspend all administrative and looking to suspend all the administrative snap rule changes and definitely because of this time of economic distress and long term recovery. I've got a, I've got a website from Texas impact here that I'll share in the chat here in a minute, so that everyone can go there and then you scroll down the page and it shows kind of the different pandemic related emphases but those are the, those are the matters strictly for related to food insecurity, although there's, you would, I would also look at the utility assistance and advocacy needed there too, because whether that's on a state level a federal level or a local level and if people can't keep their water on or keep their electricity on, they can't cook food. And so those are pretty important matters to keep in mind as well. And then the other advocacy piece that I just, I start, I started on in the last couple of days just trying to put out feelers and figure out if there's anything to be done here and it sounds like maybe there is I reached out to the Texas Department of Agriculture after hearing all these stories of farms who were disposing of produce and dairy and dairies that were dumping milk because their distribution channels say restaurants and other such places were, you know, they didn't have those to sell to anymore so I reached out to that department to see if any work is being done to facilitate the delivery of those kinds of goods, even at a low cost or something to our regional and local food pantries to try and meet some of the need that we're facing in our food pantries right now because it doesn't make any sense to be throwing food out. I mean, and I talked to Jordan Gregory who's the policy specialist in that department they said there is conversation on going about what they can do to link those farms with food pantries during this time of crisis. So, and I can also also send also post a link on the chat with contact information for the Texas Department of Agriculture. I think the more we can send emails at least maybe not phone calls because I'm sure they have plenty of phone calls coming in already the more we can say hey we're, this is where we're seeing the need and this is where we would love to see action on then we can certainly help maybe help facilitate the movement on that it doesn't sound like there's resistance they said there's actual work to get that done, but I would also encourage you to not when you reach out to your state representatives and state representatives to encourage our Texas Department of Agriculture in their work and to seek ways to make that possible. They're not in session right now that they can still have a voice, whether it be with the governor lieutenant governor or the departments. And then of course, you know with the Texas impact stuff, Texas impact usually works on the state level they're an interfaith group that's based on its member organizations social principles and what they have in common. But right now they're working on them. They are working on the national level because of the main food insecurity in terms of advocacy that can be done right now is on the federal level, since our state legislatures not in session. So I'll share those links and those are just a couple of things that we can be thinking through and and kind of give some voice to going forward. Thank you JD and and for those of you who need this information JD believe you're still on the board for Texas impact is that right and kind of our conference liaison. Yes, I'm one of our conference board members. And so I get regular communication from Texas impact. And they also have I should have mentioned this before too they also have the rapid response team which anybody can sign up for where when there's a legislative matter where advocacy is needed. You'll send out an email and text to people so you can contact your elected officials to advocate for for those in need in terms of policy. Thanks JD Chelsea before JD before you turn to JD you looked like you were about to say something. Oh yeah so for Dallas Bethlehem Center our needs. Primarily are for donations we need funds. It's it's clear that there's beyond groceries. There's a need for hot meals just like what DISD is trying to offer to the students. Oftentimes you know when students go to school that could be their only meal they they receive for the day and now that they're not in school. We want to plug in we have a commercial kitchen we have a kitchen manager who's actually a caterer. Born and raised and still living in South Dallas and so that's a way that we can plug in and meet a huge need. But that that will cost money and our our ability to turn on that program or not is is based solely on our ability to get funding for it. So that's that's my biggest concern is you know the the amount of expanded programming we can do is is simply based on how much funds we receive so that's that's our biggest ask. I'm up in Krum which is northwest of Denton. So we are in a more rural area. The food pantry in town doesn't just serve the town but it serves the whole ISD and with the other stories there is greater demand due to loss of employment loss of income. And our church has been having or holding food drives every other Sunday in order to get an effort to collect as much as we can to funnel to the food pantry and we put out the list of most needed items plus we also collect money to give to the food pantry. So that has been going great. We've had a very generous response before the pandemic. We already at the church encourage people to take the list of most needed items to the food pantry. And as they were doing their weekly shopping for themselves they also picked up for the food pantry and bring it to the church on Sundays. And so that helped us going into this. But what is my concern going forward. The church has been very generous. We are a small older congregation and they've been very generous. But there's going to have to be perseverance and encouragement for this to be a sustainable effort. I think the the donations will drop off as there's going to be a greater need. And so for us it's going to be perseverance when and I'd like though to be able to widen it more to than just our church people on these drives. When I was listening to JD talk about the farming situation. I was thinking back years ago to when we used to help with the gleaning network of Texas where we would go out into the fields and pick the produce that would go to the food pantry. And I know that was Susie Marshall years ago. I don't know if we still have a gleaning network today or something similar that we could join in on. Yeah and Sonia I've reached out to Susie Marshall who's now with grow north Texas to see what connections we might be able to make in that venue and as Deborah Hobbs Mason is noted in our chat box. We have a lot of idle buses and vans, and, you know, possibly there's a way for us to put those to work. So if anybody else has any connections in that kind of gleaning network. You know speak up or let us know others Haley what's I mean what's the concern for y'all moving forward. Yeah, so I mean there are two ways of like addressing the situation right there's crisis response. We're dealing with the lack of access to food that's happening right now. And because of the pandemic, and then their systemic justice work because there's still going to be lack of access to food from probably the majority of the people that were currently serving there's still going to be lacking access to food. When the pandemic ends. Right now, the crisis response needs that we have are like what y'all are mentioning in kind donations go a really long way. Financial donations are super helpful to they don't go as far but they're needed invaluable. Right now, to be covered conscious we are doing curbside pickup and delivery. So most of our students like I said, don't have transportation. So most of our students that we serve or I'd say about like half the students that we're serving right now are meeting grocery delivery. And I have, I can have about five volunteers work every week with our food pantry these have all been student volunteers. And I have one or two students who have cars of their own so it's been me and one or two students driving to about 75 different households. The past couple of weeks so if anybody wants to volunteer to help drive. We do it every Friday. So that would be a huge help for the future. One of the things that has been limiting in the past for us is that people will earmark funds to our food pantry. This is great we get to spend that money on food purchases, but again, we're treating a crisis situation we're treating a systemic justice situation as a crisis situation. And that is not sustainable and it's not empowering and helpful it's not promoting change. My organization students that I have are extremely like politically mobilized and astute and aware and they've got really great ideas on how to advocate for justice. And so we would like to see a little bit more trust in our organization that comes to financial giving to where people don't earmark their funds and they give to our ministry in general and trust that we're going to use it to try to get at the root of these injustices. So that would be a big need of ours going forward. And then I was really glad that JD talked about advocacy. There are some things that need to be advocated for simultaneously as we're working on the crisis situation that we're facing right now with food insecurity things like trans rights laws and protective laws for trans the trans community and then there are ordinances in some of the surrounding areas including Dallas but there's not one in debt and right now. Amber Bruegel I can post her contact information but she's spearheading the work on that. We there are sprinkled around the country there are. There's advocacy for student workers who are treated as disposable and who are not supported and there needs to be a larger national movement. So in the future I'd like to see us like gaining some momentum in that direction to protect our student workers. And also to do some work on more accessible and affordable education. Additionally I could talk all day long about single moms rights I'm not going to take that space today but that is something that I would love to see a conversation generated in the North Texas conversation around. Thank you Haley. Others. Grace Avenue has been having ongoing food drives for our both our food pantries Frisco family services which carry Keck's on this call today in our little own food banks so we've had an ongoing seven days a week 10 to four and we've had a great response. We just did a mission video for them and as far as including them so that has been really successful. I'm hearing up it is what's next what is the next we're seeing middle class coming into the food banks. We're seeing more people addressing and saying resistance coming to the churches and saying, you know, pay my pay my rent, or what can we do so we're trying to grasp that and put our hands around that. The same question as we're having with everyone else's as far as what food insecurity. And I don't mean to call you out Michelle I saw I just saw your inclusion in the chat box would you mind sharing about your context and what you're seeing in your rural context. We're just a much smaller town we're in jacksboro. So, we've only got one grocery store and $1 store and when things are gone they're gone so a lot of the kids in our neighborhoods are lacking meals. So the school being small enough reached out to each family to see what the need was and have based food routes with the best drivers and school buses to deliver meals. So each day they get a lunch for that day, plus a breakfast for the following day to hold them over to lunch the next day. So that's what they're doing and then we have a food pantry here that I'm involved with that we only serve once a month and we give them about a week's worth of food breakfast lunch and dinner. And then we have the produce truck that comes to town because of the food desert twice a month that anybody can get from. Michelle and Drita could you help us think about how we can take action with your questions. Thank you everyone for sharing your insights and your expertise and for doing the work that is necessary for us to love our neighbors, not just in crisis or in pandemic, but on a regular basis so thank you for already having the infrastructure to do that service. So I just wanted to ask, how can we get on board and come alongside and help to resource and give our constituents a ways to help what your efforts are doing in the pandemic, what are some other ways that anyone can think of that are innovative or that you're already doing that we can add or that we can continue to contribute as a conference and at the conference level. What are some ways that we can do that. You know, I was talking to Andrew last week about this and I said, so one of the things is as I've been thinking about like my concerns and my fears is we're moving forward is so I really think that this has revealed some of our greatest shortcomings as a church. So we're the United Methodist Church and we are supposed to be connectional that's one of the greatest things that we have going for us and we haven't been doing it well and I think we all know that. But this has definitely revealed that. And a few years ago we had our one plus one and and it was through that that we built relationships with Nathan Adams Elementary, and we have a relationship with WT white which is a high school and DISD and so through those relationships is how this began. And so I began to talk to Andrew about what happens if all of us who have a relationship can go to principals and go to teachers and say what what needs do you see that we can help respond to and then what happens if we as churches just simply begin to connect those. And to begin, I mean, things like this are so so so helpful, but even in a, in a, in a really grassroots relationships form what happens with that. And just how we could take these few fish and lobes and what we could do with them by just offering those up to Christ and so that's been kind of my, my, really the biggest thing that's just been on my heart and the spirit is really challenging. And thankfully, I think the same thing is happening. It's interesting to see what happens even in our own church and Randall Lucas is making such relationships with some of our, you know, some of our sister churches that he's simply calling and saying how can we help and just watching that grow has been incredible. So how can we do that better. Thank you Sarah. So anyone else how can we be present with our neighbors when we are separated. How can we help those who don't who don't have the infrastructure to have the capability to have zoom calls and those. I'm sure college students and a lot of our students in our ISD, especially in rural areas. They don't have Wi Fi readily available for them to continue the school work that needs to be done. How can we encourage teachers you spoke of one plus one that's my one of our initiatives that we're attempting to feel our way through and how we could revitalize and how we can continue to shore up those relationships and help our churches to go deeper in those relationships. And so are there any other ideas we want to highlight or lift up for how we can come alongside as churches in those areas. One of the things that would be helpful, I think to a lot of probably a lot of us I think I know I'm not the only person who has, you know, deaf students in my ministry or deaf people in my congregation. But there aren't a lot of resources out there in terms of access to interpreters for reasonable cost. And we're, you know, we're just a small student ministry, our students don't, you know, we don't take up a weekly offering we got students. We rely on the generosity of donors, which is yes, and, and also agree it from the North Texas conference. So we have a very like a shoestring budget and interpreters for us cost anywhere from $180 to $210 per worship service. So we're paying that at least once a week. For Zoom calls, we are hiring interpreters at this point to come into the call and sign for us. We don't have the ability right now financially to make those interpreters available at things like our food pantry. I also found out that the organization that we've been, I mean, there was basically like one organization that people that I'm familiar with that people hire interpreters out of. And I just found out last week that the interpreters make about a third of what we're paying out. So if I'm paying 200, they're making, I mean, at most like anywhere from, I think what I was told was anywhere from like 30 to $50 of like that 180 to, so I guess it's more like a six, 180 to $210. So if we could come up with ways of providing access to interpreters in a more ethical manner. That would be awesome. I think Catherine has a resource that she's lifting up in the chat box. So maybe that's something that as a connection we can help to find interpreters and I appreciate that ethical piece that we're speaking to as well. In times of crisis, sometimes we want to cut corners and cut people, but this isn't something that we want to continue or do will be mindful of. So thank you for raising that up and really acknowledge navalism in this. And so are there any other Andrew are we I was going to share just something we have a tutoring program at Christ United and throughout the year, the school year, and we have our, it's one on one and so what we've been doing is actual zoom or FaceTime tutoring during this time. And we did have some people through the corona issue went and stayed with relatives and so we have done things like pay for internet service and stuff like that so kids could keep up with their schooling. And so, but, but I will say I'm so grateful that we had those relationships built prior, or that wouldn't have been possible, you know, to do that. I'm, I wasn't showing who that was speaking. Who was that was that Jenna. I'm, I'm Janna that Janna grandma. He who was speaking but thank you Janna that's really helpful. Just a reminder of school, I think school partnership and church school partnerships are low hanging fruit for us to build relationship outside of what we would call crisis the pandemic. This is only a crisis for most of us who are privileged, but just having that opportunity to connect with teachers principles and parents is ideal for allowing relationship and we do have resources to help you do more more good than harm. And so, if you're interested in, in, in helping or are allowing us to help you come alongside those church schools partnerships that would be something that we're completely interested in helping you do. Hey, Jerita Montreal, how are you. I'm not sure you're well, how are you. I'm well, I joined in a little late so I just wanted to know is there. And this may be a suggestion as well. Possibility for a opportunity to have a resource page. Since we are connection like someone just lifted up and it sounds like we just don't know who has who has what what what ministry what church has that has that resource available that they can possibly partner with another ministry that is in the And that, you know, that possibility they can resource together. I don't know. But it's not like we didn't a resource page either on the conference website, or something that we all can go to and say hey, that's what lover Lane is doing best can we possibly partner with them instead of just recreating or looking elsewhere. Thanks for lifting that up Montreal yes we absolutely do have a resource page already for the CMO. And we're also that was my next question for us to highlight those of you who are already doing the work and what you're doing if you would send a link to the chat box. Andrew will be putting together a resource page so that we can do just that, because, like we said so many times we are siloed we're not quite sure what and how they're doing it. I think the zoom calls COVID has done a good job of helping us to get together around the conference to know what everybody's doing. I'm hoping that we could get these resources put together and placed on our website so that we can connect and we can do. And Andy and I can help with the connection part. Since we are at the conference to help you not have to do so much of the lead work and we can do the connection part for you but yes, we are working we'll be working on that resource page for you guys to have access to from our website. Thank you. I mean it's a elaborate on one piece you said there. And that is that Montreal, absolutely. I mean yeah printed piece. There's one in process already on the website, it's constantly being revised but I would the thing I want to say is that relationships have been noted several times in this call as the real key to doing this kind of work and ministry. And at any point if any of you are aware of a particular need Montreal like you said, feel free to share that with myself or with charita or with Andrew. And just by virtue of the role we play we, we have a lot of relationships across the conference and we may be aware without without a pre printed list of people who could be a partner or helpful resource to you. So, I mean, feel free to reach out to us and together the relationships we share the connection we share can can do a lot of good. So that may be the shortcut call one us. Awesome thanks. One quick note of you don't mind me asking Drita. Katie with crossroads. Have you already mentioned, forgive my memory about kind of the status on taking new applications. Yeah, so we're our pantry is open Monday through Thursday nine to three I just sent it in the in the chat. We're serving anybody that can come to our location. Our partners that we're currently serving I think I mentioned we, we have over 100 partners that we provide food to and then they provide it to their community Dallas Bethlehem Center being one of them. We actually had to put a hold on any new partnerships, because we just don't have the food right now. And we want to make sure that our current partners are able to feed their community well because they have been established and have the volunteer base and have the capacity to be able to do so. Unfortunately, at this time we're not bringing on board any new distribution partners. But if you guys are interested in it becoming a partner in the near future we're hoping this dies down soon. Reach out to me and I can get you steps on how to get started. And I had just one follow up question of sorry to Rita, who of the organizations that are represented here. Who all is participating in North Texas giving day now, which is coming up on March, sorry, May 5, I believe it is. And so that's good. The West Lane didn't Dallas Bethlehem Center will crossroads be a part of that, you know, okay. Christ Foundry United Methods mission will be participating in that so those are ways that you can do some good fundraising, and possibly can have funds matched by organizations that might sponsor them. So that's a great way to give coming up to offer a closing benediction for us. Absolutely. Just want to thank everybody again for jumping on this call there's so many things that I know each of us have to do and that we're going through ourselves and how we're attempting to walk alongside our neighbors in this time. And so this, I just had a prayer from Pixie Lighthorse that I wanted us to think about and it's entitled honoring loss of control. I don't know about you and most days, you know, we like to have the illusion that we have a little bit of control of things. And I'm sure COVID has helped us know and be reminded that we do not. And so you would just bow your hearts, you don't have to close your eyes or bow your heads or anything like that but just contemplate and hopefully take in these words by Pixie Lighthorse. God thank you for this exhausting day of pure chaos. May I seek to loosen the strangle hold on what I cannot ultimately keep together so that deeper understanding of what is at work can flow in. May I dedicate myself to becoming more at ease with all that is flowering in directions I cannot stop. Help me to see where I can be useful and focus my energies there. Reinforce my awareness that I can do my part for evolvements rather than striving unceasingly for perfection. God help me see control as the illusion of containing what is not mine to hold. Let me fall apart when I need to and make room for others to splinter into smithereens to let there be a return to wholeness that offers offers more than can be found in a tight anxious cluster. Let me make space for more possibilities to unfold. God free just the one I hope for. Help me to see why I habitually strive for control, but don't actually want to be in charge. Let the sword I carry be swung only at false perceptions. Help me to open me to the real experience of life free from the need to sweep up around it obsessively. Help me take care of the cluttered rooms in my mind flushing out the buildup of reflexive patterns that no longer serve me or serve others. Help me cope with unpredictable circumstances and environments, knowing that I will find the tools to buffer my hyper responsiveness. Help me learn to let it go. Guide my nerves to sanctuary when I quicken to overreact. Inspire me to delight in emancipation from the confinement of my ideologies of supreme exactness. Unshackle me from rigid expectations and smooth my brow with the hush of my appreciation of you. Amen.