Today’s Denver Post has a well-written article on the Church’s welfare system, including a focus on the cannery/bishop’s storehouse here in Denver. Excerpt:

The Mormon Church’s bounty and efficiency regularly spill over into global disaster relief.

Within two days of the 8.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Peru on Aug. 15, the church had dispatched a 747 cargo plane with emergency supplies from its headquarters in Salt Lake City.

When the 2004 tsunami hit Indonesia and surrounding areas, church leaders asked relief agencies what they needed most but couldn’t get.

The church then found a Chinese supplier that could deliver 50,000 body bags to the region within two days.

Between 1985 and 2006, the church donated cash of more than $201 million and goods of more than $705 million in disaster relief to 163 countries.

“The church doesn’t try to make a big splash,” said Lynn Southam, a member of the church’s lay clergy in Aurora and a stake president. “It just quietly gets things done.”

While a lot of people are aware that the Church uses its welfare system to care for its own, few people know of the Church’s extensive humanitarian services worldwide, almost all of which go to people who are not Mormons. ..bruce..