Many area residents, we’re sure, don’t understand everything the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints espouses.

We’re sure, however, that the church does good work in the community – and that’s something everyone should be able to get behind. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has again come through in a big way for the St. Susan Center, delivering 30,000 pounds of food and goods to the soup kitchen, which also functions as a resupply hub for more than 10 food pantries in the area.

Members of the local congregation applied to the home church in Utah, which for the second consecutive year approved a large donation that will provide a big help to both the St. Susan Center and food pantries that it helps. Jean Fairbanks, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Jamestown, New York Stake, Relief Society, President, said that this shipment included 25 pallet skids, carrying a total of 30,000 pounds of various items such as rice, beans, dish soap, salsa, pinto beans, cream of mushroom soup, diced tomatoes, white flour, potato flakes, powdered milk, penne, macaroni and cheese, pudding, hot cocoa mix, peanut butter, and more.

According to information from churchofjesuschrist.org and sltrib.com, the Latter-day Saints have contributed more than 32 million pounds of food from bishops’ storehouses to humanitarian organizations and food banks across the United States and Canada.

While the size of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donation is impressive, we shouldn’t forget the churches that are doing important work in the local community by hosting pantries, using mobile food trucks to help feed the hungry, stepping into the void to provide shelter for the homeless and supporting missionaries who provide humanitarian work throughout the United States and around the world. There are countless people in Chautauqua County who volunteer through their churches for causes both large and small – and we are a better county for their efforts.