Located at 2312 Marietta Ave., Lancaster, Salem United Church of Christ (UCC) of Rohrerstown has a Mission Outreach Committee that for the past 11 years has organized a soup collection for local food banks during the month of January. Every Sunday when church members attended the worship service, they were asked to bring in cans of soup. Ever since this initiative began, the Mission Outreach Committee has called it "Souper Sundays." About 200 cans were gathered that first year, but after congregation member Mark Wanner got involved in 2019, the church has been able to collect many more.

Wanner realized that Giant Food Stores Supermarket & Pharmacy ran a special on soup during the month of January, but there was a limit on the number of cans a person could purchase. As a result, Wanner contacted a representative at Giant and explained that the church wanted to purchase several cases of soup for local food banks. Since then, Giant has been working with Salem UCC of Rohrerstown to stock local food banks with soup.

This year's grand total of 2,492 cans of soup was split between four food banks in Lancaster County: the Hempfield Area Food Pantry, the Columbia Food Bank, the Lancaster County Food Hub, and the Mount Joy Food Bank.

The Mission Outreach Committee gives back to the community every month. In February, members of the congregation will raise funds for Love INC of Lancaster County, which serves people in need in the community.

"I just really like that our congregation loves to do things for the community," said Wanner. "I'd say we have a really small congregation right now, but they're very giving people. If you ask them for something, they deliver."

Guests are invited to watch Salem UCC of Rohrerstown's Sunday worship services, which are livestreamed and begin at 10 a.m. To learn more, visit http://www.salemuccroh.org or search for "Salem UCC (Rohrerstown)" on Facebook.