The leader for nearly half of Love Chapel food pantry’s 50-year history understands that feeding the area’s struggling families has been significant.
But Elizabeth Kestler said that nearly as important is the idea of training volunteers to “cross boundaries into others’ world, creating an atmosphere of love and understanding” toward people facing a myriad of financial and other challenges. Loving outreach then can ripple across the community, she said.
“The volunteers allow us to be the hands and feet of Christ,” said Kestler, the nonprofit Love Chapel’s executive director since August 1999.
She expects to include some of that message into her remarks at 11 a.m. Saturday as the pantry and its nonprofit umbrella agency known as the Ecumenical Assembly of Bartholomew County Churches celebrate a half century of ministry with a free fish fry at The Commons in downtown Columbus.
The three-hour gathering is free and open to all.
For more on this story, see Thursday’s Republic.
