Latter-day Saints Expand COVID-19 Humanitarian Efforts

Over the past several months, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members have participated in the global humanitarian response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the largest humanitarian response ever by the Church and Latter-day Saint Charities.

The Church has partnered with charitable organizations to assist in more than 630 projects in over 130 countries to help those in need, providing food donations and millions of masks to health care workers, government organizations, the military and others in communities around the world.

“This is part of our DNA,” explained Bishop Gérald Caussé, Presiding Bishop of the Church, in a new video that highlights the Church’s unprecedented response to the coronavirus crisis. “We go and find those that are in need and try to help them, whether it is in our own community or faraway in other countries.”

For example, 15 truckloads of food and other commodities have been sent to food banks and other charitable organizations in the United States and Canada each week over the past several months.

“Each of these truckloads can feed about 1,400 people for about a week,” Bishop Caussé said in the video.

He also mentioned the efforts of the thousands of members of the Church’s Relief Society and their families who sewed millions of masks for health care workers in Utah.

Bishop Caussé expressed appreciation to the members of the Church who provide donations and volunteer their time to serve others.

“Reaching out to those in need, helping others that are needy or affected is really at the center of the gospel. It is at the core of our beliefs,” he said. “We try to emulate the example of Jesus Christ as disciples.”