We Go to Church for the Food

Gleanings for the Hungry, Dinuba, California
“You cook from your soul; you make people happy!” This is a quote from a woman in a video about a woman who was there in person, Florlisa, at Gleanings’ worship service last Thursday evening. Food is central to Florlisa’s ministry; it’s even more central to the ministry of Gleanings.

Gleanings for the Hungry began in 1982, with founder Wally Wenge's vision of putting to use the millions of tons of California fruit thrown away every year. That first summer they processed 15,000 pounds of donated fruit, and they were able to send sun-dried peaches and nectarines to feed survivors of hurricanes and floods in Guatemala. A ministry of YWAM (Youth with a Mission), for the next six years sent food food to Cambodian refugees in Thailand via YWAM’s medical ships. Since then, they’ve been sending food throughout the world.

I first visited Gleanings nearly twenty years ago when I was a youth pastor at Felton Bible Church, bringing a group of students process peaches on an assembly line one week during a hot Central Valley summer. We sorted out bad fruit, cut the good fruit, and laid it on wooden racks to dry in the sun. It was hard, dirty work. Kids came out of the week saying it was one of the best in their lives.

Several years later, while we were at Healdsburg Community Church, our daughters served for a week during another hot, miserable, Central Valley summer. They also had very good experience.

But Mindy had never been to Gleanings, so we were happy when Chris, a friend from Felton Bible Church days who’s now on staff, invited us to visit for dinner and the weekly evening worship service.

Before we went inside, he gave us a tour of the grounds. In October, peach season is over, but Gleanings is a year-round operation. When fruit season ends, soup season starts. Donations from farmers and manufacturers are blended into a soup mix by folks on staff at Gleanings and by volunteers from churches and other organizations.

After seeing the warehouse, the soup-packing setup, the field where fruit was dried, and the assembly fruit processing facility, we went inside for dinner with the Gleanings staff and volunteers. We sat at a table with Tiffany, Alex, and Katie, and I decided to ask Tiffany her life story. She said she was born in Switzerland, but while she was still a young girl, her father believed God called him to two things. He was called to serve at Gleanings as Director, and he was called to no longer “work.” I use quotation marks because her father does work very hard, but he doesn’t do so as a job. He trusts God to provide for his needs and those of his family.

After dinner, Chris was on cleanup duty in the kitchen. Mindy and I took a look at the silent auction items offered to raise support for DTS students (YWAM’s Discipleship Training School -- they do love their acronyms.) We bid on homemade bread, strawberry jam, and raspberry jam. We lost out on the first two but won on the third (Mindy’s favorite flavor).

Back at our tables, the worship service opened with several songs led by Tiffany and her mom, then Florlisa was introduced as the speaker. Born in Italy, as a child in the Catholic Church she dreamed of being a missionary, but she moved to America and eventually had a very successful career as an accountant. Then, at the age of 36, she became a Christian, and God called her to the mission field. She served on YWAM ships, using her accounting skills and her skills as a cook. “I like food, it is part of my culture.” She just recently came to Gleanings.

When the worship service was over, people were able to spend a few more minutes bidding on silent auction items, and I had an opportunity to chat with Fritz (the director of Gleanings for the Hungry and Tiffany’s father). I asked him what he thought was special about the place.

He said, "people who came to Gleanings felt the presence of the Lord,” and that there are many places people can go to get “head knowledge,” but when people do practical work at Gleanings with an opportunity to feed others, “they have a unique experience of the Lord.”

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the parable of dividing sheep and goats. He places great emphasis on whether people were fed in His name. There is no doubt which group the folks at Gleanings would join.