A 1,000 pounds of love

Zach Urness / Leader Staff

A couple of full-grown bull moose will provide somewhere around a 1,000 pounds of food. If you took 45 turkeys and stuffed them all into a huge brown sack, that would also be almost 1,000 pounds of food. 667 brown squirrels, 27 of the world's largest lake trout, and seven whitetail deer would come out to be roughly 1,000 pounds of food as well.

And the amount of food being raised by the Senior Life Group at Polson Alliance Church will also be 1,000 pounds, the main difference, though, is that unlike moose, turkey, deer, and squirrels, the food raised this thanksgiving for Loaves and Fishes won't be able to escape.

The idea to raise 1,000 pounds of food for those in need this thanksgiving came from the Polson Alliance Church's "40 days of community," a concept derived from a program called "a purpose-driven life."

"The idea," said Harvey Town, the leader of the senior life group, "is that people are better working together and can accomplish so much more than they can working alone. Each group finds a project that would express to the community our love for them, and our love for the Lord."

To that end, the Alliance Church split themselves into seven "life" groups, each with the goal of making a difference in the community. The senior group, which is composed of members of the church 60 years and older, decided that they would collect food for Thanksgiving.

"At one of our meetings John Kaye suggested that we collect food for loaves and fishes, a wonderful program that helps people in need get the groceries they need," said Town of the group's inspiration.

The idea to come up with the 1,000 pounds of food by Thanksgiving was a goal the group set for themselves. To reach that goal the church has been accepting donations from members of the church and community, and actively seeking out the food before delivering it to Loaves and Fishes throughout the week so that they can get the food out into the community. As of Monday, the group had collected 850 pounds of food, and Town was optimistic that they would reach their goal of 1,000 pounds a day or two before Thanksgiving.

"We see it as an expression of love to the people in the community," said Town. "God puts love in our hearts so that we can help out in any way that we can, and helping provide some food for people is a way we see as expressing that love."

After all, this is the time of year for Thanksgiving."This project is a way for us to express our gratefulness to the community and the Lord at this special time of the year," said Town.