9-Year-Old and Friends Package Almost 70 Lunches for the Homeless

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By Leah Haynes, Church News

The Primary children of the Mesa Arizona Hermosa Vista Stake sang the words “I’ll strive to be what the Savior sees in me, even when I feel like giving up” at the debut of their original song “Strive to Be” at the Stake Primary Kick-off on January 10, 2024.

Michelle Garn, the Hermosa Vista stake Primary president, challenged the children to ‘strive to be like the Savior’ over the summer of 2024.

Listening with attentive ears and an open heart, 9-year-old Jackson Willis and his mother, Emily Willis, decided to take the challenge to heart. After considering several service projects and opportunities, Jackson and his mother found a project through JustServe.org for the East Valley Men’s Shelter.

JustServe is a free website and app where community organizations list their service needs and where volunteers can find service opportunities around them.

Jackson and his mother decided to make, package and deliver lunches to those in need at the East Valley Men’s Shelter.

“It made me think of the story when Jesus fed the 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish, and He still had baskets of food left over,” said Jackson, adding, “We fed people who were in need of food, and we made a lot of lunches.”

Together, Jackson and his mom made a list of friends who they wanted to invite to their home to make the lunches. On June 12, Jackson and nine of his friends came together to complete the project. Jackson came to know his friends through sports, his neighborhood, and his ward, the Monument Ridge Ward; some were other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and some were friends from other faiths.

Regardless, Jackson saw the value in service, was inspired by his stake and felt the responsibility to enlist everyone he could in the work.

“I was really impressed with the response that we got,” said Emily Willis. “All of the boys were really willing to come over. … I felt like it was well received by everybody; everybody was super excited to participate. Jackson and all of his friends are really good boys, and we have so much. We are so blessed that I feel that doing service projects more often is a no-brainer. It’s really what we should be doing.”

Days before the project, Willis made a sign-up sheet for the other parents and their kids to bring lunch ingredients. Then, on the day of the project, the 10 friends made lunches that consisted of a sandwich, chips, a granola bar, water and a mini apple or orange.

“I learned that I should appreciate everything that I have,“ said Jackson. “I felt like I was going to help a lot of people in need.”

Together, the boys made 67 lunches for the East Valley Men’s Center. Each boy made 10 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in an assembly-line style. The service project required 15 hours of service time, not including organizing the event or dropping off the lunches.

After all the lunches were packaged, Willis sat down with the boys, explained the implications of homelessness to them and taught them a bit more about how they can help the community in small ways.

“I hope the boys took away that service can make you feel really good but it can also be fun,” she said.

“One thing that stands out to me when I think of the Savior is that He was always looking for the people who needed to be served. I think at times, it’s easy for me to just focus on all the things I have to get done in the day or all of the errands I need to run or all of the daily tasks that can make my life busy and not take the time to really think about how I can use my time to bless the lives of other people, especially those people who are most vulnerable and most in need.”

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