This project has been shared by the Good Shepherd Lutheran Life Team in Collinsville, Illinois, and Zion Lutheran Life Team in Columbus, Ohio. Thank you to Pat Hoffmeier, Life Team Member from Good Shepherd Lutheran Life Team, and Debra Rieddle, Life Team Leader from Zion Lutheran Life Team, for the helpful information.
“Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:13).
The birth of a baby is such an exciting time. It also brings many changes to a family’s daily life. One way to support families with new little ones is to help take the responsibility of cooking meals off their plate. Zion Lutheran Life Team has provided meals for five or six families since starting this project a few years ago. Good Shepherd Lutheran Life Team has been providing meals off and on for a while but decided in July 2023 to be more intentional about providing meals to support families with newborns and now has a written protocol.
If you decide to do this Life Project at your congregation, it’s best to start by setting some guidelines. Decide how many meals per week and how many weeks you would like to provide meals. It is helpful to create a sheet to give families in order to gather the information needed to best serve the family (number of family members, allergies, etc.). It is important to communicate with the family about food allergies or dietary restrictions, delivery times, preferred days, where to deliver, and how many servings to make. Zion Lutheran Life Team Leader Debra Rieddle makes sure to ask the family’s least favorite meals and restaurants. Unless there are allergies in the family, most welcome any meal offered.
MealTrain.com is an excellent site to use for organizing volunteers to cook and deliver meals. It allows someone to set up time slots for others to sign up to make food for a family. It is free and easy to set up. You will need to complete five easy steps. First, you will enter the recipient’s name and email address. The email address is not published but is used to inform the family that someone has signed up for a meal and other important information. Next, you will add the city, state, and preferred delivery times. The street address does not have to be included, but you will need to coordinate where foods will be delivered.
The next step is to select the dates for meal delivery. This can be adjusted later, which is helpful if a family’s plans change. Step four is to indicate the number of adults, number of children, favorite meals or restaurants, least favorite meals or restaurants, allergies or dietary restrictions, and additional special instructions. During the final step before submitting, you can add a donation fund goal, but this is not required. Select “Other” and then you will be able to check the box indicating that donations are not needed. Then hit submit! A link will be provided to be shared. SignUpGenius.com is another option to provide a way for people to sign up to provide food. Your church may already be using this site.
Both Life Teams emphasized the importance of putting announcements in your church’s bulletin and/or newsletter. Remind members that this service is available. Zion Lutheran Life Team typically talks to the mother a month or so before the baby arrives to finalize details. The typical duration of their meal train is two meals a week for four weeks, but this can be adjusted to best fit the family’s needs. Good Shepherd Lutheran Life Team offers three to six meals for one or two weeks. If cooking isn’t in your skill set or you are short on time, you can provide gift cards to the family’s favorite restaurant or coordinate for a meal delivery from that restaurant.
Good Shepherd Life Team doesn’t seek out new moms, but through announcements at church and members, there are families to support. They ask that the mom call the church office to let the Life Team know the baby has arrived, if a family member hasn’t done so already. Good Shepherd Life Team has 21 meal makers on their list. Meal makers are volunteers from the congregation who were found through announcements in the church bulletin. The Meals for Moms leader contacts the new mothers to set up the details of the meal deliveries. Then the meal makers are coordinated to get the meals made and delivered. Sometimes it’s easiest to deliver the meals directly to the family at their home, but this may not always work. Church may be a more convenient location to give the meal to the family or leave the food in the fridge for them to grab. They also purchased “Child of God” onesies to give to the family when the first meal is delivered. Your group may already have something you give to new babies.
This project can be used in a way that best suits your congregation members. We hope this sparks an idea for you to serve those members in your church or community who recently had a baby. This is a wonderful way to support life!