30 local congregations come together to address hunger, human rights, and climate change!

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2 Responses to “30 local congregations come together to address hunger, human rights, and climate change!”

1. # Whitney Princeon 21 Dec 2008 at 1:07 pm

   Members of West Side UMC have begun volunteering at the Delonis Center Community Kitchen the third Tuesday of each month. In addition, we have an ongoing Food Gatherers Food Drive, and we support Bread for the World through communion offerings and BFW Offering of Letters. We also participated in the NRCAT by displaying a “Torture is a Moral Issue” banner in June and November, and will do so again this coming January. Last year we distributed free CFL light bulbs to the congregation. Currently, we are looking for new ways to make all of our church’s activities more eco-friendly.

   There was some controversy over our involvement with NRCAT, but otherwise all of these activities have been well received. We hope to continue, and where possible, expand on these activities.

2. # Katie Galaneson 22 Dec 2008 at 10:13 am

   1. What innovative effort has your congregation made on the issue of hunger/human rights/climate change?
   Through the generosity of the St. Clare’s Episcopal Church Endowment Fund, St. Clare’s Back Door Food Pantry received start-up funds in March 2007 to begin providing food to the hungry in our community. Since its inception, a plethora of dedicated St Clarians and community members have volunteered their time, money and resources on a weekly basis to serve non-perishable food items in pre-packaged grocery bags. Food is purchased at reduced rates on a weekly basis from Food Gatherers, who also provide some oversight and guidance when needed. Operating out of two small rooms in a church-owned house on the property called Wisdom House, volunteers work on Mondays stocking, shelving and packaging food items delivered by Food Gatherers, and on Thursdays during distribution time from 4-7pm each week. Being that we are under the auspices of St. Clare’s Episcopal Church, we are fortunate to have only one requirement for those coming to our door: being in need of food. We take people on their word that they’re hungry and need the food we can provide. We have no limit on the number of times a person can come to our pantry in a given month, allowing people to rely on us to supplement their food supply on a weekly basis if they need to.

   2. What were the positive outcomes of this effort?
   Since its inception in March 2007, volunteers have served non-perishable food items in pre-packaged grocery bags to over 1747 local households and 5207 individuals. Most recently, we were the fortunate recipients of 6 separate food drives within the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti community around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. As the need for food has grown, the community and St. Clare’s has responded and we have never had to turn anyone away for lack of food.
   In the fall of 2007, the Back Door Food Pantry received “The Beacon of Light Award” from the Food Bank Council of Michigan in recognition of the pantry’s grassroots efforts and it’s being only one of two pantries in Ann Arbor with evening hours, thereby making it accessible to working folks in need of food assistance.

   3. What challenges did this effort bring, and what would you change?
   As with any volunteer operation, recruitment and retention of volunteers has sometimes been challenging, but on the whole we have a dedicated group of volunteers who are always willing to help out at the last minute, should there be a need. Another challenge is planning for and responding to the increased need we continue to see, due to increased unemployment and economic hardship in our community. Perhaps the biggest challenge for us is thinking of and implementing innovative ways to fundraise and solicit assistance from different resources and working to ensure our sustainability for the upcoming years. There has been talk of potentially expanding our distribution process to accommodate another day of food distribution but that is still in the very early stages of discussion. Being organized and operated solely on a volunteer basis, at times the requirements to keep the pantry operating smoothly can mirror the responsibilities of a full-time job- though the benefits are far more rewarding! In terms of changing things, having funding to be able to hire someone (or perhaps even take on a student intern) on a part-time basis would help further ensure that things got done in a more timely, efficient and effective manner.

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