Church members tote water, food in bags to give to homeless

When members of New Valley Church in Chandler leave for home after Sunday services, they go equipped to perform ministry-in-the-moment outreach during the ensuing week to those who seem to be in need along their travels.

They called it “Meals in Wheels,” not to be confused with the long-established Meals on Wheels, where volunteers deliver prepared meals to seniors, shut-ins and disabled people in their homes (video).

New Valley Church members travel with a cache of quart-size Ziploc bags filled with bottled water, juice packs, trail mix, raisins, nuts, granola bars, lip balm, crackers and similar items. During their normal travels, they hand them out to homeless people they see on sidewalks, at streetlights, near freeway exits, in parks or “wherever they run into people in need around town,” said Jeff Krieger, a pastor and the church’s director of media and mercy.

“Our dream and desire is that folks would get ahold of this vision and do it themselves,” Krieger said. “What if every church in the Valley did this?”

The church’s children have especially embraced it. Senior Pastor Scott Brown said that when his family is out driving, his children scope the landscape for potential recipients of the bags. “They get mad at me if I don’t stop, when I say I am out of bags,” he explained. “They say, 'Dad, they are right there, and you are not going to give them anything?’ ”

For church member Katie Formissano, the effort provides a simple lesson in compassion. “I really like it because I’ve got the two little ones — and as a parent, you are always trying to look for things as examples to teach your children how to be outward and to think about others and care about others.”

“Too many times, you’re driving and you see somebody and you feel you should do something,” she said. “You don’t quite know what to do.”

Recently, while driving in Chandler, her children, Ben, 7, and Caroline, 4, saw a woman on the opposite side of the road who seemed in need. Their first question was, “Do we have a bag in the car?” Formissano turned the car around to cheers of “Yeah, Mom!” and reached the woman. “You do (go to the trouble), especially when you’ve got the kids who want to do it and you are trying to set the example,” she said. It was Caroline’s first opportunity to personally hand a packet to someone on the street.

The project was the brainchild of Cindy Coughlon, a church member who “felt like there was something she had to do to reach out to the homeless, even with a small act,” Krieger said.

At New Valley, which meets at Valley Christian High School and is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America, members buy items for the bags in bulk and hold a bag-filling gathering after services, or when members plan them.

A card inside the bag simply says, “We wanted to show that we care about you … (and that God does, too).” On the back is the church’s Web site and a map showing where Valley Christian High School is located.

“It is not really intended to hit them over the head with our gospel presentation,” Krieger said. “It is just to share our kindred love with them and meet their need.”

Members typically fill 25 to 50 bags at a time, and people take several bags with them.

To those who are cynical about “giving handouts” to street people, Krieger said he once thought they should take care of themselves. “That was my opinion for a very long time in my life, but I think I have come to understand that I wasn’t responsible for where I was born. I wasn’t responsible for the family I was born into. I wasn’t responsible for all the connections that I have. I wasn’t responsible that they paid for my college education, and I think all of us need mercy — all of us need grace and mercy.”

“We found it was hard to do it year-round because it takes people constantly bringing in stuff every week. People have lives and they forget.” So the choice was made to focus on the hot-weather months, Krieger said.

One day, he said, he was at a stoplight when the driver in the car in front of him gave money to a man along the street soliciting help. He expressed his appreciation. “Then I handed him the bag, and he said like “What! No way! Thank you so much! I needed water so bad.”

Krieger called the response typical. “It is not just somebody throwing money at them,” he said. “They think, 'Somebody took some care and time to really know what my needs are and to try to meet it.’ ”

Often, he said, drivers sit at lights eyeing homeless people beseeching help with signs or just pass them pushing shopping carts on sidewalks. “Sometimes, if I don’t have something to give, I feel a little bad because I want to help, so now to have something tangible that meets a need.” Additionally, it brings fulfillment to him.

Krieger doesn’t analyze whether someone is being truthful with a “Vietnam vet” or “lost my job” sign. He refrains from giving out cash, but has offered to take people to a place to get a meal. “That kind of calls them out,” he said. “They may be lying, but they are on the street. If I give them something, I did my part, and it is in God’s hands at that point.”

Brown recounted one man in the church who was in tears retelling how he took his family to San Diego. While grandparents were riding in the car, his 4-year-old son, David, saw a homeless man, rolled down the window and shouted for the man to stop. His father drove next to the man, and David handed out the bag. leaving the grandparents overwhelmed by what they had witnessed.

Formissano said it’s important to “show my children how to honor people regardless of their situation. I know I am not going to save somebody with a bag of water, but it allows me to honor them as human beings, show mercy, and teach my children that in a true way and by example.”