Whenever you find yourself in need of a little bit of help, then feel free to contact your bishop or president of the Relief Society. You will be given a bishops’ storehouse order form which you will need to fill out in order for your situation to be taken into account.
Once the bishop or the president of the Relief Society evaluates your bishops’ storehouse order form, you will be contacted and the goods will be made available to you. If you are unable to carry the goods yourself, the LDS volunteers at the bishop storehouse will bring them to you. In return, you may be asked to help out at your local bishop storehouse.
The bishop storehouse is a tradition started by Joseph Smith Jr. back in 1831. He had a revelation from the Lord, letting him know that he should gather food in a storehouse for the poor and the needy. The tradition spread quickly and now nearly all LDS congregations have a bishop storehouse. A bishop will organize (usually on a Sunday) a fast offering when members that attend the Sunday meeting can donate some money in order to stock up the storehouse. The rest of the supplies are provided by the church – grown on church-owned grounds.
This tradition was first held on Thursdays. But due to hardship people experienced while not eating on a work day made the church push back the fast offering day to Sunday. Since then, people started giving not only food, but clothes, money and household items as well.
As nothing comes free in this world, neither do the services provided by the bishops’ storehouse. If a person who needs help with food or something else gets it from the bishop storehouse after completing the bishops’ storehouse order form, then that person is required to do some work for the church. This especially applies to people who are not employed somewhere. Like the Bible says – Teach a man to fish… If the person is unemployed, the bishop might even find him or her a job through the local Church Employment Resource Center.
There aren’t many bishop storehouses in the world – but their location was very well-thought of. They can serve thousands of people at once and the large ones even more so. For example, the Bishops’ Central Storehouse in Salt Lake City can hold up to 65,000 pallets of food, available within minutes for distribution. More than 1,5000 pallets go in and out every day, transported by Deserted Transportation – 43 tractors and 98 trailers.
So if you really find yourself in a pickle, don’t hesitate to fill in the bishops’ storehouse order form and get the help you need. Take into consideration that there are people who desperately need the supplies there so don’t make waste of them and do whatever you can to give back to the community. After all, everything you give will eventually end up back to you when (and if) you find yourself in need of help. Just fill in the bishops’ storehouse order form and wait patiently for a reply.