Students filled Stamps Courtyard April 2 at California Baptist University to help pack boxes for the Children’s Hunger Fund for the third year in a row.
Similar to Operation Christmas Child events, students came together to pack boxes for families in need. This time, however, the boxes were full of nonperishable food items.
The Children’s Hunger Fund is an organization that partners with churches across the United States and provides food for low-income families.
Churches that partnered with the Children’s Hunger Fund received the pre-packaged food, and then go into low-income communities, knocking on doors and delivering the boxes in-person to build a more personal relationship with receivers of the food.
Julie Dobbins, director of Compassion and Women’s Ministries for Spiritual Life, said she enjoys the service model and the personal role the church gets to play in the lives of the community.
“We love the vision and mission of the organization because they desire to create opportunities to help meet the needs of a community in a way that can strategically advance the gospel,” Dobbins said.
Dobbins said the purpose of the event, which is hosted by Spiritual Life, is to encourage students to interact more directly with local churches and the community.
Shiloh Fox, junior art therapy major and Compassion intern for Spiritual Life, said she hopes participating in the Children’s Hunger Fund event will strengthen relationships between students and local churches.
“I like being able to be involved in the Christian community and local churches,” Fox said. “The best part of this event is getting to partner with the churches and a whole network of believers, and I love being a part of that.”
Students such as John Coleman, junior Christian studies major, showed up to prepare the boxes because they or friends of theirs received the boxes as children.
“I used to receive these boxes myself, so I came here because I wanted to help families in need. It’s a situation I’m familiar with,” Coleman said.
Coleman also emphasized God’s desire for his people to help those in need.
“If you’re a Christian, then God is calling you to help others in need, and we need to do so wholeheartedly while glorifying God in the process,” Coleman said.
Students looking to serve over the summer can look at the Spiritual Life page on the campus website for other ways to serve.
