What is a generous fast offering?

Answer:

The principle of fasting and making an offering to assist the poor was established in the 1840s and has continued in the Church since then. For many years, most members of the Church were poor and gave of their meager possessions to those less fortunate. Thus, giving the value of two meals not eaten during a fast was appropriate for the Saints in their time of poverty. Later, President Spencer W. Kimball urged member to be very generous in giving to the poor. A generous offering might be considered an amount equal to many times the value of two meals missed, depending on the financial abilities of the donor. Blessings are promised for generosity to the poor.

"Let this be an ensample to all saints, and there will never be any lack of bread: When the poor are starving, let those who have, fast one day and give what they otherwise would have eaten to the bishops for the poor, and every one will abound for a long time; . . . And so long as the saints will all live this principle, with glad hearts and cheerful countenances they will always have an abundance" (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 7:413).

"Sometimes we have been a bit penurious and figured that we had for breakfast one egg and that cost so many cents and then we give that to the Lord. I think that when we are affluent, as many of us are, that we ought to be very, very generous. I think we should . . . give, instead of the amount saved by our two meals of fasting perhaps much, much more—ten times more when we are in a position to do it" (Spencer W. Kimball, welfare services meeting, 6 Apr. 1974, 11–13).

"Nearly all of us can give something to others, no matter how little we have. . . . Those who have little are blessed because they have the desire to give" (Providing in the Lord's Way [32296], 8).