Bishop's Store House

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday find Evan working at the Bishop's Storehouse. He cleans, stacks, warehouses, shelves, and does misc chores. He loves working there and they love having him work there. Each week he becomes stronger and contributes more. What a blessing all around. Here he is with some fellow workers and friends.

The bishop's storehouse system is a network of Church-owned and -operated commodity resource centers that function much like retail stores, with the major difference that goods cannot be purchased but are given to needy individuals whom local LDS bishops judge to be worthy and deserving of Church assistance. Recipients are invited to work or render service in various ways in exchange for goods to avoid allowing the goods given to be a form of dole.
The storehouse stocks basic food and essential household items, produced largely from Church agricultural properties, canneries, and light manufacturing operations. The entire system, where practical, is vertically integrated, from farming and harvesting through processing and distributing. All work is performed by Church volunteers and recipients and is largely independent of the commercial economy. The contribution of time, talents, and resources of the membership of the Church in various areas sustains the storehouse.
The concept of the storehouse and the Church Welfare Services emerged from scriptural principles, elucidated by a series of revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith beginning in 1831, a year after the Church was organized. In one revelation, Church members were directed to "remember the poor, and consecrate [their] properties for [the poor's] support" (D&C 42:30). The goods and money thus contributed were to be "kept in [the Lord's] storehouse, to administer to the poor and the needy" under the direction of the local presiding leader, the bishop (verse 34). Bishops were charged to seek donations as well (D&C 104:15-16; Welfare Services Resource Handbook, p. 9).