The journey of a single peach, which passed through the hands of thousands of Latter-day Saint volunteers to the mouths of a hurricane-torn family, contains a simple lesson for all of us — that through small and simple acts of service the Church can collectively accomplish something large.

The story started last year at a Church welfare farm in North Ogden, Utah, where local members cared for peach trees. In late summer, volunteers picked a bumper crop of peaches.

The peaches were delivered to a Church cannery in Lindon, Utah, where they were cleaned and processed by additional volunteers.

Then bearing the "Deseret" label, the canned peaches were transported to Welfare Square in Salt Lake City where still more volunteers placed them in family food boxes. Those boxes were then loaded — again by volunteer Church members — onto a truck and driven to Texas.

LDS volunteers there unloaded the truck and carried some of the food boxes into the home of a needy family in the greater Houston, Texas, area; they were still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Ike that devastated their community.

The family opened a food box filled with enough to feed them for a week to 10 days. They found rice, vegetable oil, peanut butter, fruit drink mix and, of course, a single can of peaches.

In this case, the peach is a symbol of something much larger – the Church's worldwide welfare and humanitarian efforts.

During the past quarter of a century, the Church has sent more than $1.1 billion in humanitarian aid to 167 countries around the world, according to Welfare Services. That includes 61,308 tons of food; 12,829 tons of medical supplies; 84,681 tons of clothing; and 8.6 million hygiene, newborn and school kits.

Also, from 2002 to 2008, the Church improved mobility for disabled people by distributing 302,000 wheelchairs. LDS volunteers trained 113,000 physicians, nurses and midwives to save newborns with breathing difficulties from 2003 to 2008. And during that same period, Church efforts resulted in improved sight for 215,000 people. In addition, 5.2 million people now have access to clean water thanks to an LDS initiative to improve health by providing convenient and sustainable sources of clean water to communities worldwide.

And millions have benefited from Church financial support to the World Health Organization for campaigns to eliminate diseases such as measles. (The backbones of those campaigns were the Latter-day Saint volunteers who canvassed neighborhoods to inform people of the effort.)

It's a massive work to help the poor and needy set in motion by the Savior Himself.

"For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

"Naked and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. …

"Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25:35-36, 40).

When we see such numbers and results as impressive as the Church's efforts, we may believe that in order to follow the Savior's directive we, too, must do something big – like travel to a Third World country and build an orphanage or dig a well, or fly to a disaster zone to offer assistance or donate millions of dollars to a non-profit organization. But the lesson of the peach is just the opposite: It's that big things happen when Church members each do something small.

"I believe that when we face our Maker, we will not be asked, 'How many positions did you hold?' but rather, 'How many people did you help?' " said President Thomas S. Monson on Oct. 25, 2000, at a luncheon for the Coalition for Utah's Future.

So what small things can we do to help the less fortunate throughout the world?

We can volunteer at bishops' storehouses, welfare farms, canneries or other Welfare Services projects. We can donate useful items to the Deseret Industries. We can make generous fast offering contributions or donate to humanitarian efforts through LDS Philanthropies.

When Mike Wallace interviewed President Gordon B. Hinckley in 1995, he asked if Church members object to the millions and millions of dollars sent worldwide each year for humanitarian aid.

The Church gives every year "with no objection," replied President Hinckley. In fact, they give "with encouragement" (Discourses of President Gordon B. Hinckley, p. 507).

That is because members know that helping others is about following their Savior. They know that helping others is less about peaches and more about people.

You see, the peach that helped a hurricane-torn family was touched by many willing hands. Volunteer hands picked the peach, they canned the peach, they stocked the cans in the storehouse, boxed the cans, loaded them on a truck and eventually delivered them to the arms of someone in need.

They were hands fulfilling a Church assignment. They gave their time not because they like peaches but because they love their fellow man.

So the next time a sign-up sheet for a storehouse or welfare farm or cannery comes to you, remember the peach.

Like the dozens of hands that sent it to help someone in need, our hands — doing something small – can accomplish something large.