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I've seen this mentioned on the thread about the Church and the lawsuit asking for finances to be open for purposes of awarding damages.

What precisely is Church support? Is this like a welfare system? A warehouse of food?

barrelomonkeys wrote:I've seen this mentioned on the thread about the Church and the lawsuit asking for finances to be open for purposes of awarding damages.

What precisely is Church support? Is this like a welfare system? A warehouse of food?

Hi. I can get you started on some basics, but I am sure others can fill in with details. I'm too lazy or something to look up some link. So, first, yes, they do have a warehouse and factory and a cannery. Maybe some other stuff, I am not sure. They also have Deseret Industries, a thrift store that may people donate two and where many people who need jobs can get a job.

You are first supposed to go to your family if you are in need. After you exhaust that resource, you can ask for church help. I'm sure of that. What you can get in what situation, I have no idea.

I've read a lot of terrible stories, but I haven't had personal experience. They have a social services division as well. Where one can get psychological counseling. There is lots of stuff on the net about that division. Anyway, that will get you started.

Heres an article from a 1979 Ensign magazine that talks about the church welfare system:
http://LDS.org/portal/site/LDSOrg/menuitem.b12f9d18fae655bb69095bd3e44916a0/?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=57c5d0640b96b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1

(One of these days I'll learn how to do that trick with the URLs where it just shows up as a word.)

The church is more careful about it now because many have learned how to abuse it the way they do the government programs. You'll get these poor neighborhoods and apartment complewx where they all want to join just so they can get all the services the church has, then they never show up on sundays and just abuse the hell out of it, including getting very demanding over what they see as theirs. Like free rides to the bishops storehouse etc..

barrelomonkeys wrote:I've seen this mentioned on the thread about the Church and the lawsuit asking for finances to be open for purposes of awarding damages.

What precisely is Church support? Is this like a welfare system? A warehouse of food?

The bishop of the ward is the overseer of the local ward welfare program, which is outlined in the Welfare Services Handbook. Apparently the US government was very impressed with this program and studied it. It covers a multitude of areas in, primarily, temporal matters, self-sufficiency and personal accountability. Simple things like teaching people to not spend more than they earn. Having home storage. Education. Personal health and hygene, and attending to all things temporal. Helping the unemployed find work, and where necessary assisting them financially in return for work. This work could be working on a welfare project, or even assisting the ward clerk with paperwork. Sort of follows the pattern of "you don't work, you don't eat". The Australian government, after years of supporting dole bludgers, finally implimented his, after the Church had been doing it for more than 50 years. It's called the "work for the dole" program.

Of course there are circumstances when a bishop will not ask for return work if the person is ill, aged, or incapacitated. Sometimes the bishop will use welfare funds to pay a member's electricity bills, or even part of the rent (no, not the deposit on a spa), depending on their circumstances. It is the bishop's grand responsibility to ensure that none of his members suffers undue hardship, but at the same time are making positive moves to overcome their disadvantage, whatever that might be, and also calling upon family members for support of the disadvantage person, first. Failing that the Church will step in. This program follows the injunction in James that no matter how spiritual you are, or righteous you are, if you do not care for the "widows and fatherless" - your religion is in vain.

Having been a quasi-bishop (since Merc insists I was only a branch president), I know a little thing or two about this program. But branch presidents also oversee this program in districts. The link Gaz gave is a good one, but I thought I'd add a personal account, since reading links can be boring.

Thanks for all the replies. I'd heard about the cannery and storing food, which I think is a wonderful project! My family does that and we've been doing that for years.

I didn't realize there was a formal office that took care of such matters. I know my step-son said his mother and step-dad were helped out financially by returning to the church. I thought he meant by family members. It is great that there's a program set up for this.

barrelomonkeys wrote:Thanks for all the replies. I'd heard about the cannery and storing food, which I think is a wonderful project! My family does that and we've been doing that for years.

Like so many really great projects, our area cannery no longer works. Several years ago, each ward (we have 5 stakes, so about 50 wards) was assigned a week at the cannery, where ward members were supposed to volunteer to can whatever was on the production list. Teenagers and adults could do the work. It was a great experience, but required a lot of preparation work, so of course we don't do it anymore. The cannery now is only open a few weeks a year for dry canning. I suspect the canning is now much more centrally located and is much more efficient because of that. Also, the church farms here now sell their crops on the open market instead of supplying the cannery. They've become major producers and no doubt bring a ton of money into the church. (we've discussed the impact of church farms on threads before).

The cannery here is connected to the bishop's storehouse. Somewhere they must still can Deseret brand commodities, because that's what's on the shelves. Deseret brand is nothing to sneer at. Some Deseret brand items are absolutely topnotch: the raspberry jam, the stew, and the turkey are absolutely yummy. The chicken noodl soup is very good also. Members can buy selected Deseret brand items by the case. Our Relief Society home storage person puts out a sign up sheet a couple of times a year, and we can stock up. That's how we sign up for the dry canning too.

Home storage isn't emphasized as much in the last 7 years or so, since the millenium change. There was a generalized panic at the time, but hardly anyone talks about it anymore. We still have a monthly mention in the Relief Society newsletter about the storage item of the month, but that's all.