The Heart and Habit of Generosity With Barbara Moore

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

It’s Mike Treem. I’m here today with Barbara Moore. Barbara is a longtime friend of KLTT and someone that we’ve relied on a lot when it comes to issues of food insecurity and the work that’s going on in the Denver metro area, especially Jeffco County. And Barbara, thanks for taking the time with us.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:19

Yeah, I’m excited to just talk about this idea that I have to share with the listeners.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:24

Well, I love that because we all know it’s in the news that food banks are swamped and certain benefits are expiring. I don’t know what the right word is, but the bottom line is people are going to need food. And you have this wonderful idea. Why don’t you unpack super quick what’s going on and then let’s talk about this great idea.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:47

All right. So what if God is asking us today to adjust our grocery shopping habits? And I call that developing a habit of grocery shopping called one for you and one for me. Pot of tea, pot of me. How’s that sound?

SPEAKER 01 : 1:04

Yeah, I like that. And it’s simple. And the idea there is what? To buy groceries for someone else that doesn’t have them and then to donate that, correct?

SPEAKER 02 : 1:15

Yes, that’s absolutely correct because that’s like a bottom line action plan from heaven. And… I would like to visualize this with the listeners because I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of years. Do you think that might help to try to kind of show, like, just think, listeners, that you’re at King Soobers or Walmart or, you know, and then you begin to see this in one of the aisles. So you see a mom or a dad with a shopping cart. And next to them, you see a small child that’s, say, five. And the little child has one of those little baskets, the ones with the handle on it. And so you’re watching them shop, and they get up to the mac and cheese section. So mom says, well, what are we going to do today? And the little girl said, pot of tea, pot of me. One for me and one for you. So mom takes two boxes of mac and cheese and puts it in her shopping cart. And then the little girl or little boy bends over, gets their mac and cheese, and puts it in their little basket. then they go over to the soup aisle and then they go over to the cereal aisle and each time they have this shopping habit grocery shopping habit that’s pot of tea part of me one for you one for me well the little girl this is part of the legacy of her family now she knows like what this means that’s good so she just can’t wait when they get to the check stand to put her little basket up there and then say to the checker can i tell you about pot of tea part of me And they’d be like, what? And she’s like, one for you and one for me. That’s how we shop. That’s our habit.

SPEAKER 01 : 3:01

How’s that sound? That’s so good. That’s so good. Speak to the food inflation part of this because that’s why we need to have innovative concepts like this because it’s getting crazy expensive. We all know that.

SPEAKER 02 : 3:17

Yeah, middle-class food inflation is definitely not fun. I mean, it’s affecting middle-class people. And so we’re not making light of that. But when God said in Matthew, where were you when they were hungry? Well, he is asking us that right now. So even though you might say, well, food inflation is terrible, well, God says, feed the hungry. And he says, develop a habit so you can do it. So the point being, you might say, well, I can’t afford to buy another box of mac and cheese for 50 cents at Walmart for somebody else. But then again, you have to ask God, are you asking me to develop a new shopping habit even in the midst of what’s going on?

SPEAKER 01 : 4:00

Oh, yeah. That’s good. And it’s – It’s not just we talk about mac and cheese and certain things like that, but it also means the higher dollar protein options because those are hard for somebody who has food insecurity that doesn’t have enough food.

SPEAKER 02 : 4:17

Yes, that’s why we do food drives at King Soopers too because we can have people set up a table there and get those items that are more expensive. And that’s exactly what the families want. As you said, the proteins and things, the healthy foods they need.

SPEAKER 01 : 4:33

So you’re building this legacy, your kids, or if you don’t have younger kids or grandkids, which most of us have, you know, someone that’s, you know, either kids or grandkids that we could do that. There’s that weekly habit, the spiritual part of that. And really, God says over and over in his word, does he not, Barbara? And you as a pastor obviously could speak to this so well. That’s something that God really cares deeply about. He makes it really clear.

SPEAKER 02 : 5:01

Yeah, and the mental health issues, we can have another program to talk about that. But here’s a question they might ask somebody on an intake at a hospital or a school. Sometimes, often true or never, I worried whether food would run out before I got any more money. Second question, though we bought food, it just didn’t last, and we didn’t have money to get more. So there’s intake questions because people don’t always offer that they’re hungry. But the fact of the matter is in Jeffco, it’s one in three kids, 10,000 kids in Lakewood, and they don’t make a living wage. So you have to do the math. And then the other thing I say with love to each one of us is don’t judge them because that only stops us from developing this new habit of one for you and one for me. God tells us to give them the shirt off our back.

SPEAKER 01 : 5:57

Well, we’ve talked in the past a little bit about, I know there’s the discussion of minimum wage or not when it goes up. And I’ve heard the person that says, well, it’s not designed to support a family. But hello, the facts are there are families that that’s just the reality. And it’s not because they’re Lazy, they’re not working hard, mom and dad aren’t working, maybe several jobs. It’s just, oh my goodness, think about how expensive it is just to live in Denver. It’s crazy.

SPEAKER 02 : 6:28

Yeah, it’s developing a legacy for yourself or your family, and you decide and you’re a decider. You know what? We are going to help hungry children. We’re going to end some of the suffering. In consistency with food, like we deliver the foods every week, you know all year round consistency with getting even a minimum amount of food brings less suffering to them mentally because they’re on high alert all the time kind of looking what where my next meal is going to come especially on the weekends so by developing this habit ask god say, God, do you want me to develop this new habit? And I’m not really talking about a one on one linear thing where every time you buy one item, you give one to somebody was just saying, when you shop like when when Glenn and I, my husband and I when we shop online, at Walmart, I always add in different products for the kids, because I’m shopping for us. And then I’m shopping for them. Pot of tea, pardon me one for me one for you. So it’s just asking God if you can do it, even if you don’t think you can do it financially. You just say, well, God, do you want me to try this? What can I say?

SPEAKER 01 : 7:41

Yeah. I think a lot of times we might question, someone might question whether or not they can afford it, and then they do it, and they realize that, First of all, you get to the end of that, you give the food to the food bank, whether it’s Jeffco Eats or so many other worthy folks around. And then you have that feeling of, oh, okay, that’s going to make a difference for somebody. That’s huge.

SPEAKER 02 : 8:09

Yeah, I think if you actually pray some of the scriptures around this too, I think it’ll help our heart. Maybe it seems like a leap of faith for some, and it can be. But if we just ask God and then pray, Lord, you say, you know, we know that they’re hungry, so what would you have for me to do? That’s a good way to address it. Just ask God.

SPEAKER 01 : 8:35

Now, you and I in our notes, you mentioned it could be something you do with kids or grandkids. It also could be with your life group or your prayer study group at church or with even your church. If you’re brave enough to say, Pastor, would you mind bringing this up? How about if we or outreach person or whatever, we make a point of saying, we’re going to do this as a church. I mean, it could kind of transform the giving heart of a church or a life group really easy.

SPEAKER 02 : 9:05

Yeah, because if you came to Jeffco Eats on a Friday morning and we packed 600 food bags, know that we know that people say wow it feels really different in here it just feels so good and we like families to come so if you take a friday morning from 9 to 10 30 at jeffco eats and pack those 600 bags and then you hear all about it you see which schools they’re going to like we did a thing at red rocks country club and they had no idea that their neighborhood schools had kids that were hungry So if you go face to face and actually volunteer even once and just see what is this all about? Or like you say, your church goes to a pantry every so often. You ask King Soopers if you can set up a table and collect food. Like you have to put your, you know, the rubber to the road and then you see it. And we just had a gala event and people were like, oh, you know, I never got it. But now I get it. I can really see this is real.

SPEAKER 01 : 10:08

Yeah, I think those events are really good because it does make it real. And Barbara, I think a lot of our listeners, like me, I didn’t realize there were that many kids going home on the weekend without food, you know, missing meals, or not to mention during the week that they needed that kind of assistance, their parents and for the kids because they were going hungry.

SPEAKER 02 : 10:31

Yeah, so we have to be people of hope because God says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and don’t lean on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all His ways and He will direct our paths. So we have to have hope and we have to do what is noble and right and pure and true because… It makes me cry. It’s for the namesake of God. I just believe there could be such generosity by the people of God in this metro Denver area that people would notice. You know, in the Bible, people notice. They’re like, oh, those are those God-fearers, you know? That we would have such an uprising in generosity that we would reduce the suffering so much that people would notice.

SPEAKER 01 : 11:15

Well, Barbara, let’s take the time to pray now, and then let’s give contact information. So someone that says, okay, help me take those next steps, how they can get ahold of you or Jeff Go Eats, whatever contact you want to give.

SPEAKER 02 : 11:29

Well, Lord, we thank you and praise you that you are so good. You know each one of us. You know our hearts. You know everything about us. And we trust you, Lord, that you will help us to develop these habits, new grocery shopping habits, part of tea, part of me, one for you and one for me. It’s sharing, Lord. Thank you that you’re going to help each one of us to truly think about this. In Jesus’ name. So you can go to jeffcoeats.org. And again, we have volunteering on Friday morning, but you may have a pantry right by your house. They need your help. Feeding America, Food Bank of the Rockies. I mean, I think it’s like, here I am, Lord, send me. You know what I mean? It’s that kind of time.

SPEAKER 01 : 12:16

I think, Barbara, many, if not most of our listeners can do this. They just pray about it. hear God on what he wants them to do and step forward. Jeff Go Eats is a wonderful organization. We have years and years and years and years of working with Jeff Go Eats through Barbara and others. And there’s Erie Uplink. If you’re up in Erie, there are all sorts of other, Weld County Food Bank. Over and over and over, there are different organizations with brave people like Barbara that feel called to be in these. So one for me, one for you. Our challenge is for you to do that. And Barbara, again, Jeff Coates, give everybody the info if they want to connect with us.

SPEAKER 02 : 13:02

uh with you and your team yes www.jeffcoeats.org and click on get involved and then you can see our statistics our impact and again we we collaborate with locon a food pantry so just help a food pantry they they really they really need us to to show up and powder to you pardon me

SPEAKER 01 : 13:26

People need us more than ever. And if you are in some other area of town and you need a connection with a food bank or how to help, call us here at the station. We’ll get you in touch with Barbara. She’ll have ideas or we’ll have plenty of ideas for you. 303-481-1800. That’s easy and we’ll get you connected. All right, Barbara, thank you for taking this time. It’s time to act because these benefits for a lot of people are going to going to expire soon, very soon.

SPEAKER 02 : 13:58

Amen. God bless everybody.