Community Outreach
The Community Outreach Team is a sub-committee of the Social Justice Committee. It focuses on issues closer to home and on people in our local community. The team manages a number of community based projects in our church:
- The Sunday Service Outreach Collections Program
Since 2003, our church has been committed to a program of collections during our Sunday services which is devoted entirely to community outreach. Every 1-2 months we target a different recipient organization, inviting a representative to speak at a Sunday service, and "passing the basket" each week to allow friends and members the opportunity to contribute. The Community Outreach Team manages this program, reviewing all requests and setting up the Sunday outreach calendar. If you are a friend or member of this church, and have an idea about a group or project that could use our help, please use the Sunday Outreach Collections form. Access the Sunday Outreach Collections form to submit a request for a recipient organization. - The Ending Hunger & Homelessness Project
The Ending Hunger and Homelessness Project aims to build a team focused on the fundamental needs for food and shelter that are not being met for significant numbers of people in our community. It will build on the many efforts that our church has already made toward these goals as well as create partnerships with the other groups in our community that are working on these issues. The Project will operate as a sub-committee of the Social Justice Committee and all interested church members are invited to join. The Project Overview provides a lot more information about this program. - The Soup Kitchen Meal Program
For many years now, our church has agreed to provide six large casseroles to the Nashua Soup Kitchen every month. The Community Outreach Team currently manages this program and ensures that every month we have enough volunteers to make these casseroles and get them over to the Soup Kitchen. Sometimes groups get together in the church kitchen; often meals are prepared in member homes. Many, many church members have offered their time to prepare these meals; sometimes donating the funds for the supplies, and sometimes submitting the receipts for reimbursement. The Soup Kitchen Recipe provides ingredients and quantities for 6 or 2 casseroles. - The Household Goods Collection Basket
There's a collection basket in the Fellowship Gallery and it is labeled with the kind of products that are needed. Non-perishable foods, paper products, winter clothing, and cosmetics are the kinds of items needed by local agencies. We keep in touch with several agencies and coordinate our collections with current needs.
- The "Bridges" Cell Phones Collection Box
Since Spring 2011, we have placed a collection box in the Fellowship Gallery for people who have cell phones to give away. These cell phone are donated to Bridges, an organization that provides support to victims of domestic abuse. Bridges gives the phones to individuals for use in emergency situations. (By law, '911' must work on any cell phone, even those without service.) Since we started this program, we have been able to donate more than a dozen phones.
Click here for a summary of our outreach collections for the church year 2010-2011.
