About

The seeds of Spread The Love were planted in July 2024, when Pastor Terri Haithcock told a congregation member that she had a desire for Faith Christian Church to develop an impactful community outreach program in the Lima area.

In August 2024, the Pastor and two members of the congregation visited a Peanut Butter and Jelly ministry established by Amy and Brock Parker in Marion, Ohio. The goal was to observe and learn from this already established food delivery ministry in hopes of creating a similar program in Allen County. The three women left Marion with pages of notes and hearts full of plans and excitement!

Within a short time, STL had the church council’s approval to work toward a two month trial period of this project. A delivery van was donated and was adorned with brightly colored logos. Soon, donations were being solicited, public relations materials were being created and group presentations were being given! Volunteers signed up to make sandwiches and drive the van. The support of the Mayor and City Council was sought and received.

On February 7, 2025 the STL van went out on its first delivery run. We carried about 65 brown paper bags each containing a sandwich, drink, cookies and an applesauce cup, which were distributed in two different neighborhoods in the 6 th Ward of the City of Lima. As the number of volunteers and donations have increased, we have increased the number of meals and the number of delivery days per week.

We drive our vehicle around in the food-insecure neighborhoods of Lima, much like an ice cream truck. But instead of circus type music, we use a large speaker to blast Buckwheat Boyz’ Peanut Butter Jelly Time song! When someone approaches our van, we hand them a free meal! Although we concentrate on feeding children, but will not turn away any person who would like a sack meal. When it’s difficult to find children outside due to the weather or when we then we take them to one of many local rescue missions or adult housing centers in the city.

Our sandwiches are all made by volunteers. They pick up peanut butter/jelly/baggy kits from the church and purchase 5 loaves of bread to make sandwiches for an evening’s run! Because we break each step of the process into manageable tasks, it’s convenient for our volunteers to fit time for this project into their lives. They do each step of the process as their own time allows, and so we benefit from volunteers who have time to donate outside of typical nonprofit business hours. We have some “regulars” who sign up often, including many individuals, scout troops, church groups, high school sports teams, school clubs, special education classrooms, and service groups.

Spread the Love has established an ongoing relationship with the student council (StuCo) at Perry Jr. High School, who are regular sandwich making and donation gathering volunteers for our program. We will gladly sign paperwork for those doing community service through our sandwich-making program. We love to hear stories about how families use this opportunity to teach their children about volunteerism.

Donate

In-kind gifts from individuals and groups such as service clubs, health centers, restaurants, and local businesses initially powered our startup and continue to be instrumental to our growth. We also have a donation box at our headquarters where people drop food items. Our Amazon wish list is an easy way for donors to choose the items they want to donate and then have them shipped directly to the church. We hope to continue to meet our budget needs in these ways as well as through community grants and gifts.

Since most of the information about Spread The Love is disseminated through the community by word of mouth, we welcome and encourage referrals for public speaking and presentation opportunities. Please send an email to arrange for one of our directors to present to your club, group or organization.

Spread The Love is currently an approved charity on the Benevity giving platform (for Cenovus Energy) and with Thrivent Choice. If you can provide assistance by helping us establishing a beneficial relationship with any of the other generous corporations in the area, we would greatly appreciate hearing from you.

Bright Ideas

• Have a fund-raiser at work
• Collect donated items at your club or organization meetings
• Invite us to give a group presentation
• Ask for donations in lieu of birthday or holiday gifts