Mormon food bank a private welfare system

[The Straight Story]

Mormon food bank a private welfare system


Unemployed for a year and with an ailing wife at home, Mike Hammer stepped out of his truck in a Concord strip mall and walked into the heart of one of the most sophisticated private welfare systems in the country.


Here, in a plain white box of a building, Hammer and other Mormons come to get groceries - everything from produce to meats, much of which comes from Mormon-owned farms and cattle ranches.

Others come for counseling, employment help and a self-canning facility, where observant Mormons can up to a year's worth of food supplies in the event of an emergency. All services in the building, known as a Bishops' Storehouse, are intended to promote Mormon self-sufficiency.

...

"They're damn sophisticated people, for sure," said Rodney Stark, professor of sociology of religion at Baylor University and the author of "The Rise of Mormonism."

What makes the 110 storehouses around the country remarkable is that they are part of a system run almost entirely by volunteers. They grow the food on Mormon-owned farms, and package it at the storehouses. Volunteers drive trucks and deliver the food to distant wards - what Mormons call their sanctuaries - if recipients live more than 30 miles from a storehouse. As the recession has deepened, the church says it has seamlessly kept up with demand that increased 20 percent over the past year. But the intensely private church declined to say how many people or how much food that represented.
.....

She said what they get from the church goes beyond food. Their landlord, who is also Mormon, has let them do work instead of paying rent. She said he told her to "pay what you can, but pay your tithing first."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/07/MNP1168NEP.DTL

[elfin]

1. I have a Mormon friend who

worked at overseeing the regional effort in SE Wisconsin/Chicago. They pride themselves on taking care of "their own" and refusing to participate in the "welfare state".

She had to make weekly trips to the huge warehouse in Chicago to replenish, take inventory and set up distribution of goods.

Even though VERY wealthy,she stocked at full year's provisions for her household as is the practice to get through hard times.

They are so successful that the word has spread amongst needy people who know how to take a bus to an area and call up the Mormons and say they are members and need help. If they are not members they soon belong.

It is a good deal and one more reason it has become the fastest (or nearly so) growing "Christian" related religion in the US.

If you sign over your soul to the Mormons - you WILL be taken care of and will also HAVE to help the rest. It is a full time job for most of the women who spend their time visiting each other's houses, making baby stuff, arranging for care, taking food etc. etc. etc. They even prepare the bodies for services when death comes.

This friend is smart, funny and a Democrat. On the other hand her convert husband is a racist cynic who makes MILLONS for the church via connections.

I am fascinated by her and this very strange "religion" and cannot believe she hasn't left it.

[Confusious]

5. Still don't like them

or their magic underpants.

[kestrel91316]

2. Sounds like COMMUNISM to me. No wonder the fundies hate them.

:evilgrin:

[NashVegas]

3. And ...?

Your point?

[The Straight Story]

7. No real point

Just thought it was interesting. or does everything have to have a point? :)

[RandomThoughts]

4. Many Mormons have some real generosity

They share alot, and as this article says, they do help others in their churches.

The GOP has argued that charity work should be private, and not government. Basically that the well off should be able to give by choice to charities, instead of having taxes taken to help those in need.

But there is a little problem with this, as shown in this article, if all help to the poor is charity, then the rich get to decide which charities get money, if the government decides, then the vote of all society decides instead of just top 5%.

Should the majority of disposable income be directed by 5%, or should it be directed by elected officials voted for by society?

[varelse]

6. good point (nt)

[AllentownJake]

8. If your church helps take care of you when you are down great

However, and I say this as a member of a church(not-mormon), I don't want membership in my church to be an insurance policy.

[jwirr]

9. They are fond of pointing out that they take care of their own. When

someone says that I always wonder what they are asking in return. Having said that I will say that this is a fairly good model to follow in a crisis - 1 years worth of food and supplies ahead, community gardening and canning. Some of this we can learn from.

[paulsby]

10. they have a lot of successful strategies

regardless of what you think about the religious precepts, they tend to rank relatively low on most social pathologies.

i have a lot of mormon friends. i actually learned about food storage from one of them and how to can. i can a lot now - i take stuff from my garden in the summer and can it. pickled tomatoes, cukes, peaches, etc.

mormons have faced a lot of prejudice, govt. harassment, ostracization, forced migration, etc. so they have come up with a society that is very self-sufficient in a lot of ways, and does offer a lot of support to members who are going through hard times.

that is admirable, regardless of my disagreements with them (the majority thereof) on numerous aspects of policy, etc.

[customerserviceguy]

11. It's part of the system of social control

If you need to be on good terms with the church to get a job, or have to toe the line to get food, that gives them a lot of power over you. I lived in Utah for six months in 2005, and other than a few weeks of employment with H & R Block, I was not able to find employment there. I'm certain that every prospective employer checked with the local ward house (mine was literally across the street from my home) and found that I wasn't on the rolls.

Before we get all gushy over their self-reliance, please reflect on the fact that Utahns have a high personal bankruptcy rate, so not everything's rosy. When I was living there, it was the highest in the US the previous year.