LAMPa is excited to welcome Larry D. Herrold Jr. as our first ELCA Hunger Advocacy Fellow. Larry is a native of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, a small-town of about 10,000 nestled where the east and west branches of the Susquehanna River meet. He graduated from Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA, in 2019 with a BA in History and Religious Studies.

Larry is currently a candidate for an MA degree in Modern History from the University of Kent in England, after completing a Fulbright Scholarship. Larry says, ” I consider myself to be a historian by trade, with broad interests in cultural and religious history, and more specifically colonial America and Christian heterodoxy. In my free time I enjoy gardening, hiking, and reading.”

Larry applied for the fellow position as he is deeply committed to the intersection between ecclesiastical service and social justice. At his home congregation, Zion Lutheran Church, he led in the creation of the community vegetable garden. The garden, now four years old, weekly sends free, fresh, organic produce to neighbors and raises money from parish donations for World Hunger.

As a new hunger fellow, Larry states “Stepping away from the academic track, I long to take this voluntary work that I love into a more formal, institutional role. Connections, community, and work toward systemic change is essential for alleviating food insecurity in the commonwealth, and I seek to bring my skills and openness to learn to the policy council. While charity and volunteer efforts are crucial on-the-ground efforts, I’m excited to see how I can personally move beyond this and become a stronger advocate for change through engaging with the political, interfaith, and various other institutions that exist in our state.”

He is hopeful the fellowship will provide an even greater vision of the possibilities that exist for himself and others to make a meaningful and lasting difference in the world.  He anticipates this will come through the people he meets, organizations he’s engaged with, and opportunities for further education.

Larry is at the beginning of the ordained ministry candidacy process in the ELCA.  He says “it is important for me to keep issues of social justice at the forefront my mind and my work. My call to ministry is informed by my call to lead on addressing the systems of power that degrade our environment, perpetuate hunger and poverty, and uphold racial divisions. These are systems that are deeply entrenched in our history, and I pray that God will guide me in this fellowship and in a life of service in the ELCA toward creating a more just and peaceful existence for all his creation.”