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Thanksgiving 2025

A Thanksgiving Community Food Ministry Update:

We have some changes in our Pearce Thanksgiving Community Food Ministry we’d like to share. Rochester Family Mission (RFM) has partnered with us for over 20 years and the ministry has grown; 1150 families receive a box of food, a produce box and a turkey. After much prayer, we met with Dr. Barbara Thomas and Warren Meeks Jr. from RFM to discuss ministry possibilities to the many families in a better and easier way. ONLY GOD!!! What seemed like an impossible task became possible through his mighty hand. Little did we know their hearts and our hearts were headed in the same direction. God is so good! The new plan that developed was for the churches that typically pick up from Pearce, will now pick up in the city at Raines Park. Those churches will also help collect food for the food boxes by being responsible for one box item per church. They are now taking a role in providing for the people who need help in their own churches. Pearce and RFM will continue to work together.

Pearce will continue the 250 Adopt-A-Box collection for Heart and Soul Church and their support of school #8. There will be a list from Pearce, Chili Commons, Nurse Family Partnership and a few others which adds 150 families to our total. We have churches, agencies, and local schools that help us with the Adopt-A-Box needs along with food collected for the additional 150 boxes. A box of produce and a turkey are also given to each family. We anticipate the food families are given will benefit them beyond Thanksgiving.

Pearce Church’s specific goal is to provide 250 Adopt-a-Boxes. These boxes will be distributed by Pearce Church, our sister church, Heart and Soul Free Methodist Church, and through the Nurse-Family Partnership.

Please consider how you might help with this ministry. Maybe you have done an Adopt-A-Box in the past and could do 2 this year. We ask for cans, jars, etc. NOT be oversized since there is no way to distribute boxes according to the family size. A closed box is handed out to each family. If you have done oversized items in the past, please consider doing regular sized Items. You may also consider a donation to the Thanksgiving turkey fund; $16 provides a turkey for a family. Click here to donate a turkey. (Select “Thanksgiving Food Min” from the drop down.)

Ways to Help

Committed Adopt-A-Box Donations

EMPTY BOXES

Bring empty boxes to Pearce  – a copy paper box is the ideal size and can be used for Adopt-a-Box donations.

ADOPT-A-BOX

It is the goal of Pearce Church to fill 250 “Adopt-a-Box” donations—an entire box filled with the needed food items. Adopt-a-Box donations can be dropped off at the church before or after any weekend worship service or weekdays from 6:30am-6pm, through Sunday, November 16th. As you enter the building using door #1 or #7, place boxes on the cart across from the Family Life Center (gym).  It is best to use a copy paper box or a similar size.

ADOPT-A-BOX Shopping List:

  • 1 can of soup
  • 1 can of green beans
  • 1 can of corn
  • 1 additional canned vegetable
  • 2 cans of fruit
  • 1 can of yams
  • 1 can/jar of applesauce
  • 1 can of cranberry sauce
  • 1 box of stuffing
  • 2 cans of tuna or  1 container each of peanut butter & jelly
  • 1 box of spaghetti
  • 1 jar of spaghetti sauce
  • 1 box of mac and cheese
  • 1 pancake mix or breakfast cereal
  • 1 box of instant potatoes
  • 1 box of jello gelatin
  • 1 dessert (cake or brownie mix)

Additional food donations from the list are always accepted to fill other boxes.

Empty Boxes

PRAY

We appreciate your prayers! Pray for food and financial donations to meet or exceed our goal of 1,150 food boxes. Pray for those who are giving of their time and resources, being the salt and light as Jesus calls us, making this ministry happen. Pray for those who will receive the food boxes, that through this simple act of kindness, they would know how much God loves them and cares for them.

FINANCIAL DONATIONS – TURKEYS

You may also consider a donation to the Thanksgiving turkey fund; $16 provides a turkey for a family. Place a check in the offering box as you leave a worship service, drop a check in the mail or our outdoor dropbox (just outside the café entrance #7) on dontate on Realm (select “Thanksgiving Food Min” from the drop down). Make checks out to Pearce Church with “Thanksgiving Food Ministry” on the memo line.

HELP PACK BOXES

Thursday, November 20th at 9:30am – come to the Family Life Center (gym) and help us pack 150 Thanksgiving boxes, until all boxes are packed (approximately 1 hour).

HELP MOVE FOOD & BOXES TO THE FLC

Saturday, November 15th at 6pm and Sunday, November 16th at 12:15pm  – come to Pearce’s main lobby and help us move donated food items, adopt-a-boxes, and empty boxes from various storage areas, to the Family Life Center where everything will be organized and packed.

Want to learn more on how you can help serve this ministry? Fill out this form and we’ll get back to you soon.  Please note: at this point, recipients of Thanksgiving boxes have been pre-selected and we are unable to fulfill any further requests.

Special thanks to the network of food donations and volunteers from the following organizations:
Pearce Church
Foodlink
Browncroft Community Church
Greece & Webster schools
The Charles Finney school
Rochester Family Mission and neighborhoods
Roberts Wesleyan University
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A single mom of two had recently moved to the Rochester area. She was expecting a check in the mail to get them through their first month here. As time went by, their food ran out and the check still hadn't come. She prayed to God for help. She didn't know it, but someone had put her name on our list to receive a Thanksgiving box. When that box was delivered, she began sobbing and praising God for answering her prayers. She now had enough food to feed her family for at least one week!

“

A disabled man was sitting in a chair in his apartment. Aside from his chair and a mattress on the floor, the apartment was empty. When the box of food was delivered, he was very appreciative. He knew that his wife would be grateful, too, but she was out working at the time. Her job was to collect cans every day and turn them into the store. That simple box of food met a real need.

“

One woman received a box because someone had submitted her name. When the box was delivered, she began crying. She actually had food, but her husband had passed away the month before and this was such a beautiful act of kindness. She knew others cared about her, and she would not forget that.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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