Latter-day Saint Charities partnered with the Urban League of Metropolitan Saint Louis, Inc., in providing more than 3,500 St. Louis-area families in need with food, toiletries and personal protective equipment in Florissant, Missouri, on Monday, January 18, 2021.
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“To serve 3,500 families for our 27th large-scale distribution is something we take very seriously. We’re blessed to be able to do so,” said Mike McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.
Latter-day Saint Charities provided 40,000 pounds of food that was repackaged and then distributed by 75 volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, additional community volunteers and members of the National Guard.
During the three-hour Martin Luther King Jr. Day event, a long line of cars moved from station to station where volunteers helped load trunks with supplies.
“There could be no better way to honor the legacy and leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. than to give to those in need,” said Elder Jeremiah J. Morgan, an area leader for the Church.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Urban League has redoubled its commitment to providing the basic needs of food and toiletries, utilities, rent and mortgage assistance and employment services to its clients.
“As the youngest of five children raised by a single mother, I know what it means to receive charity like those that made possible the food and other items distributed by the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis,” said Elder Morgan. “The joy that comes to a young boy as he looks through a box of food left on the porch is something special and leaves me with a desire to pay it forward.”
Latter-day Saint Charities is the humanitarian arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sponsoring relief and development projects in 195 countries and territories and giving assistance without regard to race, religious affiliation or nationality. Latter-day Saint Charities follows the admonition of Jesus Christ to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take in the stranger, clothe the naked and visit the sick and afflicted.