Great Plains Super Bowl Video
Touchdownn! Like a full-field kick-off return, United Methodists scored 180,000 pounds of food for hungry people in five states during a Super Bowl food drive challenge.
United Methodists in four annual conferences – Great Plains (Kansas and Nebraska), Missouri, Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey – collected the whopping total of mostly non-perishable food during a friendly challenge between fans of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Great Plains communicator David Burke reported that his conference scored 55,367 pounds of food, while neighboring Missouri gathered 50,000 pounds. The two couldn't beat Eagles backers in Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey, who collected a stunning, 74,560 pounds of food for church and community food banks.
On Eastern Pennsylvania's website, John W. Coleman reported that combined the Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey cabinet will receive bottles of renowned barbecue sauce from Kansas City (which straddles the Missouri and Great Plains conferences), while the two Midwest conferences will get Philadelphia's famous TastyKake pastries, also beloved in New Jersey, and – what else? – Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, of course!
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Belvedere UMC, NJ
“Although the Eagles lost, our community won with all your generosity,” says the Rev. Janice McCrostie, pastor of Belvidere UMC (Greater New Jersey Conference) (Photo from Belvedere UMC)
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Tongaoxie UMC
Tongaoxie UMC in Kansas collected 1,288 pounds of food. (Great Plains Conference Photo)
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Grace UMC, Philadelphia
Grace UMC in Philadelphia displays its Super Bowl food challenge collection. (Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Photo)
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Hutch-First UMC
First UMC in Hutch, KS, collected 194 pounds of food. (Great Plains Conference Photo)
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Swarthmore UMC
Swarthmore UMC in Pennsylvania shows its food collection (Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Photo)
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Milford UMC
Milford UMC in Kansas collected 377 pounds of food. (Great Plains Conference Photo)
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Conshocken
Conshohocken UMC’s (EPA) food drive collection. (Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Photo)
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Atchison UMC
Atchison, KS, UMC collected 377 pounds of food. (Great Plains Conference Photo)
The challenge energized United Methodists in both regions to go above and beyond the initial goals, Coleman reported. For example, UMC at New Brunswick, NJ, collected not only 200 pounds of food but also $1,234 to purchase more food for its nightly dinner ministry, Coleman wrote.
“This collection will be a great help in supporting our mission,” said pastor Cyndi Stouffer in reporting the total
Coleman also noted that Belvidere UMC in New Jersey received 755 pounds of donated food.
“Although the Eagles lost, our community won with all your generosity,” said pastor Janice McCrostie in Coleman's story. “You all are a blessing to Belvidere and our surrounding townships! Watch her video. (https://www.facebook.com/belvidereumcnj)
Whether Chiefs or Eagles fans, churches in both regions that already collect and give food to locate food banks said they received extra donations because of the Super Bowl challenge. Photos from Great Plains and Eastern Pennsylvania (see photo gallery above) showed some hefty individual totals from United Methodist congregations,.
Enthusiasm and gratitude for the accomplishment were as clear as Patrick Mahones' passes in videos posted by the bishops of the participating annual conferences. While Great Plains may not have "won" the food challenge, its celebratory video by multimedia production specialist Eugenio Hernandez scored with high production values equal to any NFL broadcast (see video at top.).
Missouri Bishop Farr said in a congratulatory video on Facebook that the 75,000 pounds of food collected by Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey "blew me away."
"Imagine all the good that will do," Bishop Farr said.
In Eastern Pennsylvania's video, Bishop Schol, wearing a bright red jersey with Mahones' Number 15, said: “You’ve inspired us to do this every year, whether the three football teams in our area are in the Super Bowl or not,” referring to the Eagles, and New York's two teams, the Giants and the Jets.
Bishop Wilson said he and Bishop Farr agreed with Bishop Schol's proposal for an annual Super Bowl drive.
“We need to do this every year, regardless of who might be playing,” Bishop Wilson said in Burke's story on the Great Plains website.
"We’re planning to do this from here on out. We all had such a good time and Bishop Schol was quick on acknowledging us whether we got it or not. We did what we needed to do,” Bishop Wilson added. “That was pretty neat.”
See Great Plains video featuring Bishop David Wilson
See Eastern Pennsylvania video featuring Bishop John Schol
See Missouri video featuring Bishop Bob Farr and Kansas City District Superintendent David Gilmore.
See a photo gallery of Great Plains Conference collections.
See photos from Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey.
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011. Contributing to this article were communications directors John W Coleman (Eastern Pennsylvani) and Todd Seifert (Great Plains) and Missouri publications director Fred Koenig..