[Baltimore — May, 2021] United Thank Offering announced the grant recipients for the Spring 2021 cycle, and we are excited to share that the Diocese of Maryland will receive $25,000 in grant funding for “Resurrection Food Distribution.” The focus of the granting process this year was ‘Recovering with Love and Gratitude: An Episcopal Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Local Contexts.’

Resurrection Food Distribution

Early in the pandemic, Iglesia de la Resurrección, pastored by the Rev. Margarita Santana, the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland’s Latino Missioner, started a food distribution program for Latino and other neighborhood households impacted by COVID-19 who are otherwise ineligible for or not receiving aid. This ministry arose organically as COVID-19 layoffs began impacting Resurrection’s community. People started coming to the Church seeking food or assistance to buy it. Resurrección is now feeding around 50 families weekly, almost all of whom have children. COVID-19’s universal impact has meant that both nearby and distant family support has been unavailable to those in need. The Church has stepped in to offer immediate, emergency food assistance with an objective of serving 2 bags of nutritionally balanced food, including fresh meats and vegetables, to 50 households per week. UTO’s grant will enable an additional 1,000 bags of food to be distributed.  

“Choosing which grant applications to fund and not fund is always difficult, but during this extraordinary time of suffering in the global COVID-19 pandemic we had to prioritize mere survival over thriving. As always, if we’d had more money to grant, we would have been delighted to fund more of the excellent grant projects submitted, so please continue to be thankful and make your thank offerings to UTO.” Shared Sherri Dietrich, UTO Board President.

United Thank Offering Funding

Every penny given to the United Thank Offering is given away the following year to support innovative mission and ministry in the Episcopal Church. Through the gratitude and generosity of those who contributed through Blue Box donations, UTO awarded over $400,000 in grants during the second round of grants to address the pandemic.

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The United Thank Offering (UTO) is a ministry of The Episcopal Church for the mission of the whole church. Through UTO, individuals are invited to embrace and deepen a personal daily spiritual discipline of gratitude. UTO encourages people to notice the good things that happen each day, give thanks to God for those blessings and make an offering for each blessing using a UTO Blue Box. UTO is entrusted to receive the offerings, and to distribute the 100% of what is collected to support innovative mission and ministry throughout The Episcopal Church and Provinces of the Anglican Communion.

For more information on UTO:

The Rev. Canon Heather Melton
Staff Officer, The United Thank Offering
917.771.3366
hmelton@episcopalchurch.org
https://www.episcopalchurch.org/united-thank-offering