When Mitt Romney released his taxes, it showed large donations to charity, including to his church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Members of this church are sometimes called Mormons. Three million dollars was donated to charity, with about 1.5 million dollars going to his church.

Mormons follow the Biblical commandment to tithe, so Romney, as a practicing and believing Mormon, pays at least ten percent of his income in tithing. The word tithe means a tenth, and so, to be fully practicing the law of tithing, a person who believes in and follows the Bible must pay a full tenth of his or her income. In addition, the Bible requires believers to pay offerings.

“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

“Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:8-10).

When Mormons join the church—or when anyone who believes in the Bible joins a church or makes a private covenant to follow God—they commit to pay an honest tithe and additional offerings. Mitt Romney has said that no one should be critical of a person who honors his financial commitment to God. In fact, he believes they should expect a candidate to keep commitments he has made, and particularly those made to God.

What does Mitt Romney’s church do with the tithing money? Tithing money is used to pay the costs of operating the church, funding missionary work, and performing humanitarian efforts. No tithing money is spent on salaries for church leaders. When Mitt Romney served as a bishop (a lay pastor) and later as a stake president (overseeing an area similar to a Catholic diocese) he was not given a salary. He held a secular job in his community and supported his family on his own. His church work was done after work hours.

Regardless of how much money the church takes in for tithing, the church’s leadership does not personally benefit from it. Even the full-time church leaders—the prophet and his apostles—do not receive a salary, one feature that makes them very different from the leaders of most churches. If they are unable to support themselves through private funds, such as pensions, they receive a modest stipend, but this money does not come from tithing. Unlike many churches, the Mormons do not include their businesses as part of their “ministry.” They operate a small number of for-profit enterprises on which they pay taxes, most operated under Deseret Management Corporation, a holding company organized in 1966. Funds for stipends come from these for-profit funds. A church leader who is wealthy has become so through his secular work, not his church work.

Money paid as tithing is carefully monitored. The Mormons do not have a collection plate and members place their contributions in envelopes and hand it to one of three leaders privately. When the money is counted and recorded, at least two leaders must be present. Audits are conducted at many levels, both locally and at the international level. These audits are done by ordinary church members who are not church leaders.

The Encyclopedia of Mormonism explains how controls are in place at Church headquarters:

“The Church has an Audit Committee composed of experienced businessmen who are not associated with the Church as employees or General Authorities. This committee reports directly to the First Presidency of the Church and works closely with the Finance and Records Department and the Auditing Department to ensure strict adherence to ethical principles and rigid financial policies and procedures. The Auditing Department also reports directly to the First Presidency of the Church and thus maintains its independence from all other departments. Its staff of certified public accountants performs ongoing audits of finance, operation, and computer systems for Church departments and other Church-controlled organizations. Responses to all audits are required and are monitored.”

The independent audit committee issues a report in General Conference each year. This is an international conference held twice a year.

Tithing is issued to congregations, stakes, and programs according to needs. Each organization receiving funds must submit a proposed budget which is reviewed. Money is distributed based on the needs of that group. Since all Mormons are volunteers, they are instructed not to spend money on their callings (volunteer church service) and so a budget is needed to cover the expenses of all programs. For instance, a Sunday class for children requires a lesson manual for the teacher as well as various teaching supplies—crayons, paper, flannel boards, chalk boards and so on. Boys who belong to a church sponsored Boy Scouts program have all their costs for dues and membership covered by the church. The church often sponsors community events which also require funding.

Of course, running a church has costs. Buildings must be safely built, maintained, and furnished, lawns must be cared for, and cleaning supplies must be purchased. Although missionaries pay for their missions, the costs have been equalized and so more expensive missions may require greater funding and teaching supplies must be provided.

The church operates a number of humanitarian programs. The better known fund is the Humanitarian Aid program, a registered non-profit which provides aid regardless of nationality or religion. This program sends in supplies during natural disasters. For instance, when Haiti experienced its devastating earthquake, Mormons sent in two planeloads, each containing 80,000 pounds of food and other resources just in January of 2010. Today, long after many other groups have left, the Mormons are still there serving the people. Typically, in a year’s time, the church will ship 12 million pounds of shoes and clothing, one million hygiene kits, and a million pounds of medical supplies to those in need. They train hundreds of people in the United States and around the world in employment skills and help them find work. It has spent more than a billion dollars in cash and supplies for humanitarian work since it began keeping records in 1985. This service is rendered in more than 185 countries. The church operates programs in neonatal resuscitation, efficient farming in developing nations, wheelchair, dental, and eyeglass assistance, immunization programs, clean water initiatives and other services that help bring better lives to those in need. 100 percent of the money donated to this program goes to the actual aid. The church pays administrative costs from other funds.

In addition to this international program, more money and time is spent in local congregations and areas. Days of Service are a popular activity for Mormon groups worldwide. These are days when Mormons, and those who wish to join them, tackle community projects in their own areas. Many local congregations make blankets, provide literacy and ESL programs, create kits for the homeless, and do other projects paid for from church funds but not recorded in the humanitarian aid statistics.

Mormons also care for their own members. One unique program is known as fast offerings. Mormons are asked to fast for twenty-four hours (two meals) if they are physically able to do so. This fast means no food or drink of any kind. They donate what they would have spent on food and drink to a fast offering fund to care for those in need who live in their own congregation. The funds are used to provide temporary assistance in food, housing, and other emergency necessities. If there is more need than a congregation can support, the church provides supplemental funding. Those who receive help are invited to participate in additional church service in order to preserve their pride and sense of self-sufficiency. Although the aid is nearly always worth more than the work provided, it allows the receiver to give something for it. In addition, since he helps others through his own contributions during good times, he has a stronger sense of community taking turns helping each other out.

Mitt Romney’s Mormon money is going to good use helping to run the programs of the church and to serve those in need.

About 300 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints heeded the call to be their brother’s keeper in Minot after the flooding there damaged many homes. So far, the Mormons have helped gut 200 homes, and 600 other families have requested their help. Their selfless service is especially helpful to people who otherwise would have to hire contractors who charge anywhere from $8,000 to $20,000 for the same service.

These volunteers, who all wear yellow shirts to identify themselves, make a seven hour journey from Winnepeg and sleep in tents on the front lawn of the Minot Mormon Church while they work on the houses. They provide their own food and supplies. Their twelve hour work day starts at 6:30 AM. They have made incredible progress and will be continue their work for many weeks to come.

Service is an integral part of the Mormon faith. Many members all over the world go out of their way to help others by assembling hygiene kits for poverty-stricken areas, collecting canned food and school supplies for those without access to nutritious food and educational materials, and helping with construction projects in areas that have been struck by natural disasters.

The media has spent a lot of time on the Book of Mormon Musical, a Broadway production people either love or hate. The reviews have often demonstrated the biases of the reviewers. One rejoiced that the musical showed that religion believes in a lot of silly things (not just Mormonism, but all religion). Another suggested the message was that blind faith is a sin, with his unspoken message being that religious faith is always blind. A Jewish writer argued that Jewish people, with their great knowledge of the dangers of religious persecution, should speak out loudly against the musical. Other writers have noted that the musical attacks all religions, even though it focused on only one. Some have noticed it is an inherently vicious portrayal of Africans, mocking their poverty and suffering.

The official statement of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was a single sentence:

“The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people’s lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ” (Church Statement Regarding The Book of Mormon Musical, 07 February 2011).

Michael Otterson, the managing director of the Mormon’s Public Affairs Department, wrote a less official personal response to the musical for the Washington Post. There he explained he would not be seeing the Book of Mormon Musical. “But I’m not buying what I’m reading in the reviews. Specifically, I’m not willing to spend $200 for a ticket to be sold the idea that religion moves along oblivious to real-world problems in a kind of blissful naiveté.” The Mormon Church’s official statement along with other LDS news and events can be found at the LDS Newsroom.

Brother Otterson took an interesting approach to the topic. He learned it took seven years to create the musical that made fun of African suffering. He wondered what the Mormons were doing in those seven years. Were they ignorant of real-world problems and suffering? He quickly learned Mormons weren’t making fun of Africans during those seven years. They were working diligently to resolve some of the hardships the musical mocks. In Africa, Mormons were bringing clean water to four million Africans who had never had it, providing wheelchairs for 34,000 children, vaccinating millions of children, training 52,000 Africans to resuscitate newborns, and providing emergency supplies to 20,000 people in flooded Niger. In the long run, who had the most important impact on the world in those seven years?

The world has protested the desecration of sacred Muslim texts, as they should, but the same outcry has not really been present for the desecration of sacred Mormon texts through crude language and portrayals in the musical. Mormons have a great respect for sacred things—our own and the sacred things of others.

A Mormon instructor once explained how Mormons could show respect for people of other faiths. He wrote:

“We can treat things that are sacred to them with respect. The yarmulka of an orthodox Jew, the crucifix or rosary of a Catholic, the icon of a Greek Orthodox, the shrines and temples and sacred places of other faiths—we can treat all these things with the tolerance of heart we desire people to have for our way of life. This does not mean that we need to adopt their religious practices: but it does mean that we should not treat lightly these things or their use of them. “

He also suggested, “We must never ridicule another person’s manner of worship. Many of our practices may seem strange to him, too! Though we may disagree with another person’s form of worship, we ought not to make light of it or criticize him for it. For these things represent other people’s sincere efforts to worship God, and though we may make every reasonable effort to give them a fuller understanding in the appropriate setting, these methods of worship are still the outgrowth of the individual’s sincere faith.” (See Gerald E. Jones, “Respect for Other People’s Beliefs,” Ensign, Oct 1977, 69.)

There are some who have suggested Mormons need to see the musical in order to evaluate it. Most people study reviews prior to deciding how to spend their money and reviews make it clear Mormons who practice strict obedience to the commandments and the teachings of the prophets will be unwilling to see the musical. This is not just because of its attacks on Mormons, religion, and Africans, but also because the language and content are labeled vulgar even by those who liked it.

Mormon teenagers are given a pamphlet that outlines the moral standards a good Mormon will follow. It has been made clear these standards are not just for teens—they are for everyone. Concerning media and entertainment choices, Mormons are taught:

“Whatever you read, listen to, or look at has an effect on you. Therefore, choose only entertainment and media that uplift you. Good entertainment will help you to have good thoughts and make righteous choices. It will allow you to enjoy yourself without losing the Spirit of the Lord.

While much entertainment is good, some of it can lead you away from righteous living. Offensive material is often found in web sites, concerts, movies, music, videocassettes, DVDs, books, magazines, pictures, and other media. Satan uses such entertainment to deceive you by making what is wrong and evil look normal and exciting. It can mislead you into thinking that everyone is doing things that are wrong.

Do not attend, view, or participate in entertainment that is vulgar, immoral, violent, or pornographic in any way. Do not participate in entertainment that in any way presents immorality or violent behavior as acceptable,” (“Entertainment and the Media,” For the Strength of Youth: Fulfilling Our Duty to God, (2001).

From this and other statements, it is easy to discern why good Latter-day Saints simply cannot attend a musical in which “vulgar” is the one word every reviewer uses to describe the script. Mormons subscribe to what are called the Articles of Faith, a statement of thirteen basic beliefs. The last one ends with the following sentence: “If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.” Conversely, then, Mormons avoid anything that is not virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy.

Did you know that almost a billion people don’t have access to clean water? This extremely serious problem leads to dangerous health conditions for the people in the affected areas. Since 2002, the Mormons have been reduced the number of people without access to clean water by about seven million through clean water projects in 5,000 communities. Bringing in clean water reduces the threat of cholera, diarrhea, and typhoid. Depending on the needs of the area, the projects include digging wells, creating water storage, building delivery systems, or developing ways to purify existing water.

One way the church’s programs differ from many others is that one goal is self-sufficiency. Some charities go into an area, create projects, and do all the work themselves. Then they have to stay forever to keep it running. The Mormons know that if they can get a project running and then leave, they can do far more work and they can also create self-sufficiency and personal pride.

In Sierra Leone, where many of their seven million people lack clean water, the church is doing a major clean water project. Many people fled the area during the war and are now returning. However, they have to go long distances to find water. The church is now building wells and teaching the people how to do it. They teach them to solve the problems that emerge and to figure out how to sustain the project once the church leaves. The projects often create employment as well.

To keep costs down for the community, they work to make sure projects will last. In Ethiopia, the church funded four water stations in Mecha Borodo. They paid for the wells and the construction. When the stations are open, local residents can be water cans to be filled. The wells were largely built by local people to provide jobs and skills. A local contractor was hired to install the system. The water came from a local spring that was piped to a large storage facility and more pipelines are being planned to make it more efficient. T-meters and pipelines are being developed to bring water to faucets inside several larger facilities, including a monastery, clinics, and a school.

Once the water stations were built, the local community government put together committees to run them. The Mormons trained local people to maintain them and if properly maintained, the pumps will last ten years.

In Lupata, in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa, the Mormon Church’s water project was an answer to fifteen years of prayer for a solution to the water problem. They had been unable to obtain the money to develop their own program. The village, home to 214,000 people, has no electricity or refrigeration, few government services and almost no commercial businesses. Men are sustenance farmers and women care for the home, which included walking a mile twice a day for water. Women who go early in the morning are often raped. The water they brought home was shared with animals and was dirty and filled with diseases, but it was the only water they had. Hundreds of children died each year because of diseases brought on by the water. Willy Binene, a Mormon who lives in Lupata, said it was possible to live without power, but living without clean water was almost too great a burden to bear.

Someone heard about the Mormon’s clean water initiative and began praying the church could help. The Mormons sent missionaries out to evaluate whether or not it could be done and when it was decided it would be possible, the people were overjoyed.

However, bringing water to this remote village would not be easy. The Mormons could provide the funding and the training, but the actual work required some creativity.The pipeline would have to cross some nineteen miles of thick jungle and water pressure had to be maintained through all of it. This portion, building the trench, took 900 days, working six days a week. The trenches were built by local volunteers. One man said the work was hard, but he enjoyed being with the other men and felt the local people should do this because it was for them. He had lost a family member to illness and knew the importance of clean water.

Because they lacked electricity and machinery, volunteers carried the pipes, made in Kinshasa, to where they were needed after they were delivered to Lupata. They had to maintain enthusiasm in the volunteers and in the temporary employees hired locally. They also had to train the people to maintain the system and of course, there was no electricity, so the work had to be done without power equipment.

Large numbers of people moved into the village, requiring the Mormons to increase the amount of water coming through. They and their volunteers and employees built 80 water stations located about every one-third of a mile, significantly reducing the walk needed to get to the water. This required about 40 miles of additional trenches.

The project provided temporary employment for some people in the village and gave many of them job skills for the future. Since the work was largely done by local people with guidance and help from the church, they had a personal connection to it and when they drank fresh, clean water, they took pride in what they had accomplished for themselves. Their willingness to do the work had never been an issue—they had only prayed for money for the project, not for people to do the work for them.

An article on this project outlined the four steps involved:

“The Luputa water project included four steps:

1. Four spring sources were captured and combined in one containment box. Water flow is 21 liters per second, providing 1,800 cubic meters, or 479,000 gallons, of water a day.

2. The pipeline trench was dug by hand over 30 kilometers (19 miles) through jungle and savannah to Luputa. It serves four other villages along the way.

3. Trenches for distribution lines were also dug by hand to provide clean water stations about every 500 meters (a third of a mile) in Luputa.

4. Water stations were constructed. Water flow is distributed and controlled at each by a water-committee representative.

(See A prayer for clean water: New well brings new life to DR Congo by Howard Collett)

The water benefits everyone in the local communities, not just the Mormons who live there, as do all of LDS Charities’ work. This branch of the Mormon Church serves people without concern for religion and without proselytizing. It is funded through donations, with 100 percent of all donated money going to the actual projects. Administrative costs are covered by other church funds.

Recently an article appeared on AOL News that reported a Mormon chapel in Haiti was not allowed to be used for refuge during the flooding from Hurricane Tomas. The author portrayed the church as unwilling to help anyone but themselves, entirely neglecting to note the Church’s exemplary humanitarian work in that nation.

The Church issued a statement of context to help readers understand the full story. While most Mormon buildings were being used as hospitals and shelters, the particular building mentioned was taken by the government to use as a command center. The leader of the congregation did not realize he might have been able to convince the government to allow them to also set up shelters. Once the building was taken over by the government, he appears to have felt it was entirely under their control. Mormons use lay leadership and many leaders in Haiti are new to the church themselves and have minimal experience in dealing with these types of situations. Communication during this time was severely limited and leaders were left to make judgments the best they could. Many of the leaders were, at the same time, coping with their own sudden homelessness, unemployment, and multiple family deaths, while caring for congregation members and helping in the community. In a time when they were grieving and worrying, they had many responsibilities and much to do.

The author neglected to note the humanitarian work the church did during this time. The official Mormon response reminded readers that:

“The humanitarian response arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints springs into action when disaster strikes to relieve suffering regardless of religious affiliation. For example, in response to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti earlier this year, the Church has sent the equivalent of over 60 truckloads of relief supplies, including 10 air shipments, to the disaster area. The shipments have included a million pounds of food and hundreds of thousands of pounds of other relief supplies. Medical doctors were also flown to the Caribbean nation to give care to the thousands injured in the quake. Thousands more were sheltered in the Church’s meetinghouses for weeks while normalcy was restored.

One report about the disaster in question mentioned the Church had sent a shipment of 85,000 pounds of emergency supplies, one of many such shipments the Mormons made to cope with the Hurricane Tomas floods. At least fourteen doctors and nurses, as well as two counselors, were sent in with their own supplies. These supplies were supplemented by additional supplies the Church flew in later. Hospitals were set up in Mormon church buildings, accepting any who came, including many who were being turned away by other hospitals as being too injured or ill to save. Missionaries were put into service to care for those in need and to unload and distribute aid. Many Mormons went to Haiti to provide relief, either officially or unofficially and many congregations put together the hygiene kits and other aid materials the Mormons needed to carry out their work.

In the first month alone, Mormons sent 4.25 million dollars in assistance and provided nine buildings as shelters. To learn more about the Mormon humanitarian aid efforts in Haiti, read “Mormons Provide 4.25 Million Dollars in Aid to Haiti.” While many groups pulled out after the initial crisis ended, the Mormons have continued to work in Haiti to assist people of all faiths in the rebuilding process.

Mormons also worked to build temporary housing for Haitians before the rainy season. While the houses weren’t perfect, they were far better than the 2700 tents the Church had been handing out to shelter those who could not find better shelter. In the following article, you’ll note people who are not LDS mentioning coming to LDS shelters after hearing about the Mormons providing shelter from friends and neighbors.

Mormon Church to Build Temporary Housing in Haiti

An index of news stories about Mormon work in Haiti.

Index of official Mormon reports on Haiti relief efforts. Note that about half of those served were not Mormon.

Mormons have a long history of humanitarian work. The humanitarian arm of the Mormon Church is consistently involved in large disasters, often partnering with other organizations for the greatest efficiency. They also do humanitarian work in non-disaster situations. For instance, they carry out a wide variety of clean water projects, which not only provide clean water to an entire community but which train local people to maintain the project after the church has gone and teaches them how to be able to afford or obtain the materials to maintain it.

Mormons teach microfarming techniques to people in countries where there is great hunger so they can be self-sufficient in providing food for themselves. After all, bringing in food, which the Mormons also do, feeds them temporarily but leaves them dependent on outsiders for continued nutrition. When a person can instead raise his own food, he can take control of his own well-being. The Mormons also assist professional farmers in developing areas in learning how to increase their production in order to raise their personal standard of living and to feed more people.

Mormons do a great deal of humanitarian work in the field of health care. They operate vaccination programs and train people to save the lives of newborns who had been previously allowed to die due to lack of equipment. After training workers locally, they also teach local residents to train others so the program can continue when the Mormons have moved to a new area.

Gordon B. Hinckley, a former Mormon prophet, outlined the Mormon thought on serving others, regardless of religion:

“But I know that all about us there are many who are in need of help and who are deserving of rescue. Our mission in life, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, must be a mission of saving. There are the homeless, the hungry, the destitute. Their condition is obvious. We have done much. We can do more to help those who live on the edge of survival….It is not with those on the high plains of Wyoming that we need be concerned today. It is with many immediately around us, in our families, in our wards and stakes, in our neighborhoods and communities.

“And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.” (Moses 7:18.) [Note: A ward is a congregation and a stake is similar to a Catholic diocese. The scripture quoted is from a book of Mormon scripture known as The Pearl of Great Price. Mormons use several scriptures in addition to the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.] (See Gordon B. Hinckley, “Our Mission of Saving,” Ensign, Nov 1991, 52.)

The Mormon Church in the Seattle area of Washington State in the United States is helping the Red Cross with a special project known as “Yes, We Can.” This project makes use of surplus produce that would otherwise be thrown away. The Red Cross has no way to store or preserve this food and can’t give it away quickly enough. Now, the Mormons are helping them to can it so it can be stored for up to three years.

Mormons have canneries they use for their own membership. Members can come in, and for the cost of supplies, can food to be stored for emergencies like unemployment or a natural disaster. In addition, the Mormons can foods to be given to church members who are in need of a little help in hard times. Surplus food is given to community food banks.

Mormon beliefs state that they should do whatever they can to be self-sufficient. They store food for emergencies, avoid debt, build savings, and live modestly. However, even a person’s best efforts are sometimes not enough and anyone can find himself in a position of needing help at some point in his life. To this end, Mormons have programs that allow them to help each other. Once a month they go without food or drink for twenty-four hours and donate the money saved to a special fund that goes to help those in need. In addition, they volunteer at the canneries and food banks, known as bishop’s storehouses. The storehouses, unlike most food banks, are not filled with random donated items. Instead, they have a specific inventory of purchased or church-produced food. Mormons in need meet with church leaders to determine there is a need and then select foods from the list, enough to meet their needs, not necessarily all their desires, although the list does include desserts and treats. They then take that order and fill it at the storehouse. The storehouse normally resembles a grocery store without a cash register.

Instead of paying in cash, Mormons volunteer their time, working a few hours in the storehouse or filling other church needs. In addition, when times are better, they donate to others in need. This makes it a program that is not a handout. By volunteering their time and helping others, they are preserving their self-esteem and worth, as well as their self-sufficiency. The work seldom would have paid enough to cover what they received, but it shows a desire to work for what is received and helps make members feel more comfortable accepting service.

Because Mormons provide the storehouse only for their own members, they are able to give them more than they could otherwise. A person will receive essentially everything they need to get through the two-week period, including hygiene supplies, cleaning supplies, and baby care materials. They do not need to take from any community resources, leaving those resources for those who do not have a church to assist them. Of course, the Mormons donate what is left over to the community food banks to help others. In times of crisis, such as Hurricane Katrina, the church donates storehouse supplies to help people outside the church.

Service is an integral part of the Mormon faith. They have several programs to assist people in need, both inside and outside the Church. One such program is the Humanitarian Aid program, which serves people world-wide regardless of religion or even lack of religion. This program strives to provide meaningful and sustainable assistance. For instance, clean water projects are instigated in which local residents are trained to maintain the program and shown how to afford what is needed to keep it going. This allows the village to become self-sufficient after the initial service, which means they won’t find themselves without what they need when the church moves on and it means the Mormons can then helps another village.

Another humanitarian aid program involves providing wheelchairs to those who need them and can’t afford them, usually in developing nations where they aren’t easily available through other organizations. They also provide immunization programs, microfarming instruction, Neonatal Resuscitation Training, vision treatments, and hygiene supplies. In China, they set up employment centers for women. In Bulgaria, kitchen equipment was given to a kindergarten. In Romania, washing machines were provided for street children. Shoes and backpacks were given to Chilean children after an earthquake. In Nairobi, victims of political violence were given emergency relief. In Uganda, emergency relief was provided for refugees. These types of projects go on world-wide.

In addition to formal projects, local groups provide Helping Hands assistance. Wearing the well-known yellow Helping hands vests or shirts, volunteers participate in a variety of service projects in their own communities, doing everything from painting to cleaning up. Congregations hold frequent service projects to meet the local needs of their communities.

Read about Mormon Humanitarian Aid.

Watch a video about the Yes We Can Project:

Many areas have canneries operated privately by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are often called Mormons. You won’t find their output on grocery store shelves, however, despite the extremely high quality of the food. The food canned in these canneries serve two purposes. The first is to allow church members to can large quantities of their own food for home storage. This allows them to be self-sufficient in the event of unemployment or illness, and to be able to buy only in season, on sale, and in bulk by having sufficient quantities tucked away.

The second purpose is to provide food for those who are in need. Much of the food canned or created goes to what are known as Bishop’s Storehouses. These look like small grocery stores except they don’t have cash registers. Church members who are in need meet with their bishops to evaluate their budgets and learn how to live on less. They can also receive permission to fill out a food order. From a list of available items, they mark what they need and in what quantities. The bishop can make adjustments (up or down) and then they take the list to the storehouse, where someone helps them fill the order.

However, the canneries are also used to help local charities feed people. The Salvation Army, Utah Food Bank Services, Jewish Family Services, Houston Food Bank, and Metro CareRing are among the many non-Mormon organizations that make use of the canneries. Some provide their own food items while the church provides them with cans, lids, labels with the name of the charity, not the Mormon Church, and free use of the cannery. Other organizations provide only volunteers to do the work.

The Denver cannery devotes three months a year to outside charities, with the remaining time devoted to serving their own people. The project in Denver began twenty years ago. At that time, the cannery arranged for local farmers to donate surplus crops to be canned for those in need. The current program provides peanut butter to the Houston Food Bank. The food bank provides the peanuts and the Mormons provide everything else. The food bank is able to produce a jar of peanut butter for only 91 cents this way and is able to provide 95,000 jars of peanut butter a year to those who come to them for help. Peanut butter is very popular with food banks because it’s nutritious and doesn’t require refrigeration, additional ingredients, or even dishes to be enjoyed. It’s also popular with children. Having a large quantity of one item consistently available and prepared in advance provides them with some security and the ability to better plan.

The Mormons provide services to the poor, both LDS and non-LDS, in a variety of ways. The storehouses food, mentioned earlier, is paid for through a unique program called Fast Offerings. Once a month, Mormons are asked to not eat or drink anything—not even water—for twenty-four hours if they are physically able to do so. This actually only requires them to skip two meals, plus snacks. They donate the money they saved by not eating to their congregation, which then uses the money to take care of the poor. In that way, Mormon congregations, who consider themselves a family, take care of their own. It takes nothing extra out of their budget, but does require some sacrifice on each person’s part. The receivers “pay” for what they receive by accepting church assignments, including working at the storehouse for a few hours. The work seldom equals what was received, but it allows the family to maintain their self-respect, knowing the help was not a handout. They also know they’ve helped others in the past, and will again in the future, and all of this makes it easier to accept help in the proper spirit.

Another way Mormons serve the poor is through their humanitarian aid program. This program serves the poor world-wide, and is not specifically for Mormons. Volunteers might use these funds to provide clean water for a village, help native people build a school yard, provide wheelchairs for those who can’t afford them, or provide training to villagers in caring for premature infants. Normally, the people who receive the gifts are expected to participate, offering some of the labor and providing people to train in maintaining whatever is provided.

These are just a few of the many programs offered by the Mormons, through a variety of programs, to assist those who need a temporary hand to get their lives back on track.

To learn about the cannery programs to assist hunger groups, see:

Church Canneries Help Local Groups

On January 22, 2010, the leadership of the Mormons appealed to their members around the world to assist in the humanitarian work in Haiti. The church has been an active participant in the work being done there, but they expect to be working there for at least a year, and more funding will be needed.

“Our hearts are filled with sadness as we have watched the suffering in Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake. We turn to the example of Jesus Christ, who reached out to “lift up the hands which hang down” and “strengthen the feeble knees.”  We are keenly aware that many in America are dealing with economic challenges caused by the recession. However, we are appealing to members to donate to Church Humanitarian Services as their means allow in order to help our Haitian brothers and sisters.  Many have already contributed and others are anxious to do so.” (First Presidency Statement on Haiti)

Funds for humanitarian work come from a separate department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints known as LDS Philanthropies. Some aspects of this department cover LDS-specific programs. Others are non-sectarian. The Humanitarian Aid program is non-sectarian. Money donated to this fund is used entirely to help others. The Church pays administrative costs out of regular church funds, making it fairly unique in the non-profit world. Help is given to people regardless of religion or even lack of religion. It is a non-sectarian humanitarian effort. No missionary work is involved in the humanitarian efforts.

In Haiti, the church is again partnering with Islamic Relief  and other organizations, including CARE and American Airlines, to bring much needed supplies to Haiti. Supplies include food, medical supplies, tents, water filtration bottles, blankets, newborn kits, wheelchairs, and first aid kits. The church also arranged for LDS volunteer doctors and social workers to go to Haiti to provide treatment to anyone who needed it, regardless of religion or nationality. Nine LDS chapels have been turned into shelters, and some of the doctors are treating those who are staying in those shelters. The shelters were opened to non-LDS people as well as members. Missionaries who are serving there have turned to humanitarian work instead of missionary work.

The Humanitarian Services program is most often in the news for its emergency response program, but it involves many other programs as well. Since 2003, the Church has donated a million dollars per year to the Measles Initiative, a program carried out by American Red Cross, the United Nations World Health Organization, UNICEF, the UN Foundation, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They also provide manpower for this program, helping with canvassing neighborhoods and assisting in clinics.

Humanitarian Services provides volunteer doctors and nurses to train workers in developing nations in neonatal resuscitation training. In some areas, a baby that isn’t breathing is left to die while workers focus their attention on helping the mother. This program has trained more than 80,000 birth assistants in how to save the baby as well. These trained aids are then expected to train others, which allows an area to become self-sufficient, and allows the Church to move on to another area.

The Mormon’s Clean Water Initiative has helped more than 4500 communities obtain clean water. Local community members help with the planning and also assist in the work. They are trained to maintain their own system after it is in place, creating both employment and self-sufficiency.

The Church also assists people in obtaining wheelchairs. They have provided more than 300,000 wheelchairs in 101 countries. The Church provides wheelchairs, crutches, walkers, cushions, and other assistive devices, as requested by other charitable organizations in the areas, and they also provide training to these partner organizations if they are asked to do so.

The Mormons have a vision care program using volunteer medical personnel in twelve countries. They provide materials and training to local organizations and professionals.

In addition to these organized programs, church members world-wide donate time and materials for countless other projects, including making quilts, teddy bears, quiet books for orphanages, hygiene kits, and other projects which are distributed by Humanitarian Aid. Local congregations and auxiliaries volunteer time in their own communities and select projects of specific interest or need on their own. Many congregations have a literacy specialist who assists members and non-members alike in learning to read, learning to speak English, and other literacy needs. Church organizations help members move, care for children, and obtain food. There are a multitude of service programs going on at any given time throughout the world, wherever Mormons live. And of course, countless Church members volunteer in their own communities as individuals.