The Church of Jesus Christ and the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Feed Families in Chicago

Volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other organizations came together from September 11 through 13, 2025, at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition (RPC) headquarters in Chicago to feed families with food insecurity.

Downloadable B-roll & SOTs

The JustServe-sponsored service opportunity featured volunteers who organized two semitrucks full of food (70,000 pounds or nearly 32,000 kilograms) from the Church into grocery bags on September 11 and 12 for those in need. They then distributed the food on September 13 to more than 1,000 families. Extra food was taken to a nearby food pantry.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who founded the RPC, was present Saturday. His son Yusef said the 83-year-old civil rights leader has progressive supranuclear palsy, which affects his muscle control and speech. Yusef said his father was happy to see people serving as the Savior would.

“[This service project] brightened his face, it put a smile in his heart,” said Yusef, who serves as RPC’s executive director. “Feeding the hungry — the mission directly from Jesus Christ — is important to us. We believe this is our duty to continue to serve. All four gospels mention Jesus feeding people.”

Each recipient received two bags of dry goods and one bag of frozen meat and dairy products.

“[This food is] a bridge between grocery shopping and having to buy necessities so I’m able to get other things instead of food with the money that I need,” said Shonnell Hampton, the mother of a 9-year-old boy with autism, who received food Saturday. “It literally helps me put food on my table for my son.”

Feeding the hungry is “the gospel in action,” said Chicagoland JustServe representative Matia Marcucci.

“Serving in our community is the way that we love God and love our neighbor,” Marcucci said. “It’s been a lot of work, but a really fulfilling, fantastic experience to work shoulder to shoulder with some amazing people here at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition who are committed to loving and serving their neighbors and to making sure that families don’t go hungry.”

This collaborative effort with the RPC is one example of the Church of Jesus Christ’s global commitment to caring for those in need. The faith’s 2024 “Caring for Those in Need” summary highlighted how the Church spent US$1.45 billion on humanitarian aid. That included 3,836 humanitarian projects in 192 countries and territories, with Latter-day Saints and friends contributing 6.6 million hours of volunteer service.

Marcucci said this Chicago event came about through interfaith dialogue that developed a connection with the RPC.

“We started talking about what we could do to collaborate with them to serve the needs of their community,” Marcucci explained. “Food insecurity was the thing that that came up. There are a lot of people in these neighborhoods who are really battling through food insecurity. We thought, ‘Let’s do something in September when kids are going back to school.’ Families need to be fed. And we need to make sure they are taken care of.”

The Rev. Dr. Janette C. Wilson, senior advisor to Rev. Jackson and national executive director of PUSH For Excellence at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, called this outreach significant for its intergenerational, multicultural, multiethnic makeup.

“People are volunteering time and energy and effort to make some families make it another week without having to figure out how they’re going to feed a family of four or feed a family of eight,” the Rev. Wilson said. “We are saying to other faith groups across the nation: We must all bind together to feed the hungry. This is our small step. As we prepare to go toward Thanksgiving and the high holy days, how can we help the least of these?”

Keisha Edwards serves as Relief Society president of Chicago’s Hyde Park Ward. As a Chicago native and a key organizer of the food distribution, Edwards said it was nice to see this happening in a place she calls home.

“It feels good to be in a situation where cultures are mixing and people are coming together from all parts of the Chicagoland area,” said Edwards, who joined the Church of Jesus Christ three years ago. “I think the needs [of this community], first and foremost, are love and the need for connection of all people, and then of course the need for food. To be able to come together as two communities, merging and help fill that need is a wonderful thing to me.”

After the semitrucks arrived on Thursday, the Rev. Bobby Lewis, RPC chief of staff and pastor of the Joy Life Center church in Chicago, reflected on how the serving others strengthens our relationship with God and our neighbor.

“It is this type of work that [helps us] understand who we are with God and who we are with one another,” the Rev. Lewis said. “[This] allows us to move with joy [and] a certain confidence that we’re in the right place at the right time, doing God’s work for God’s people.”

The Rev. Lewis expressed gratitude to the Church of Jesus Christ for helping RPC carry out the vision of the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

“I’ve always called [RPC] fertile ground because change happens here at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition — change for our people, change for our cultures,” the Rev. Lewis said.

Elder Steven D. Shumway, a General Authority Seventy with the Church of Jesus Christ, told Pastor Lewis that the RPC brings about change “because of the people that you are.”

“I love your title, PUSH: People United to Serve Humanity,” said Elder Shumway. “I think it’s just that simple. It’s as simple as loving God and loving our brothers and sisters.”

Elder Shumway, who spent three years as a mission leader in Chicago (2019–2022), said he was happy to make another friend in the city.

“I love Chicago, and I lived here,” Elder Shumway said. “Today I get to meet another brother.”

The Rev. Lewis said these service projects can bring the nation and world together at a time of division.

“We’re standing strong together to lift up our brothers and sisters in our community,” the Rev. Lewis said. “And we’re going to come out better people. We’re going to come out stronger people. We’re going to do greater things together.”

“We’re going to keep this effort moving forward because it's God's effort, not ours,” Elder Shumway responded. “We’re just not going to stop doing God’s work.”

“We’re just going to willingly walk in what God has for us to do,” the Rev. Lewis said.