“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over” (Luke 6:38, NIV).
A little over three years ago, the outreach commission at Oak Heights Covenant Church in Hutchinson, Minnesota, was seeking a way to impact the community with the love of Christ. It’s not a large congregation, but its people have big hearts for serving.
In early 2022, Jeff Schmidt, the chair of outreach, received an inquiry from the Food Group of Minneapolis. They were looking for a location to reopen a Fare for All pop-up grocery store once a month. Fare for All is a cooperative purchasing program that buys fruits, vegetables, and frozen meat in bulk from wholesalers, manufacturers, and growers and makes them available at 40 percent off the grocery store price. The mobile grocery store is open to anyone, with no income restrictions.
So on April 7, 2022, Oak Heights began serving the community and beyond as a mobile grocery store once a month. From the start, the church felt that God was leading every aspect of this adventure.
Members of the congregation help with distribution. Some greet visitors and help them order the food. Others use shopping carts to bring the orders out to each family’s car. Throughout the visit, they engage their new community friends in conversation.
Out of thirty-three sites that Fare for All serves, Oak Heights consistently serves the third-highest number of families. They recently completed their thirty-sixth distribution, serving 174 families within two hours.
This article was first published in the Covenant Companion Summer 2025 issue, the official magazine of the Evangelical Covenant Church.
