In Southern California’s Orange County, where nearly half a million people are at risk of going hungry each month during the COVID-19 pandemic, Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church is the largest food resource as the congregation seeks to follow the example of Jesus.

Since the pandemic began in March, the megachurch’s volunteers have distributed more than 2.4 million pounds of food at more than 300 grocery distribution events throughout Orange County, according to The Epoch Times.

“Saddleback has been feeding our community for over 10 years,” Saddleback’s communications minister, Ashley Eure, was quoted as saying. “When COVID hit, we scaled up our distribution to meet the rapidly increasing need. Every Southern California Saddleback campus has contributed to putting on food distributions and caring for the physical and spiritual needs families are facing right now.

“Pastor Rick has said that, as Christians, we are called to step into the places of pain. In a time when the world is scared and hurting, instead of running away from that, we’re going to run towards the pain…