Lauren Jardine normally serves volleyballs for the University of Utah, but she served and loved her neighbor Thursday by packing boxes of canned food with 150 other young adult volunteers in west Salt Lake City.
The Utah volleyball team had the day off from practice and every player rallied to a teammate’s last-minute call to help feed 900 families by boxing items for food pantries at the Bishops’ Central Storehouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The event was part of a two-day celebration of the notable 10-year partnership between the Latter-day Saints and the U.N. World Food Programme that has fed 6.6 million people in 46 countries over the past decade.
The church has donated at least $46 million to the WFP during that time, based on public reports .
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is our most important partner,” said Barron Segar, president and CEO of World Food Program USA. “They are our first responder. When there’s an emergency, they’re the first ones to call us and we’re the first ones to call them for funding. They immediately respond.”