FOOD FOR OUR NEIGHBORS
"For I was hungry and you gave me food..."
Matthew 25:35
Financial uncertainty, unemployment, and homelessness are a reality for so many people in our area and we continue to be challenged to meet the ever increasing needs of our neighbors. Westminster members and friends are participating in two ongoing efforts.
Donations to West Chester Food Cupboard
Each month we collect specific items to donate to the West Chester Food Cupboard (formerly Cares Food Network). Members and friends are invited to bring designated non perishable items and place them in the containers marked Food for our Neighbors located throughout the church. Volunteers deliver the food to the cupboard regularly. The Food for Our Neighbors calendar lists the food items to be brought each month. Download a calendar here or pick one up in the office or from the information center in the narthex. Through February we will collect fruit juices.
Find the Food Cupboard on Facebook!
Fresh Produce for our Neighbors: Gleaning Garden Wraps Up Third Year
Westminster's gleaning garden provides fresh produce for the West Chester Food Cupboard. Summer crops include kale, red beets, green beans, cherry tomatoes and carrots. This spring and early summer crops included snow and sugar snap peas, cabbage, and broccoli.
Families are having fun caring for the garden. Member and volunteer, Anne reports that her son William (age 7, right) planted carrots one week and in a return visit 
was very excited to see them sprouting. Her son Thomas (age 12, right below) hams it up before taking on the job of watering.
The gleaning garden is ably organized by Outreach Team member Sue Bruegel who oversees the planting and scheduling and orientation of volunteers. Volunteers are needed to commit to a one week period, watering (if needed), weeding and harvesting. Volunteers can deliver harvested food to the food cupboard or leave the harvest in the church refrigerator for Outreach Team member Bill McCahan to deliver. If you are interested or would like to learn more, email Sue at suebrue@verizon.net or look for the sign-up sheet on the Outreach bulletin board outside Spellman Hall.
The garden is located on the west side of the church parking lot next to the tool shed and the water pump. Look for the raised beds and the Food Cupboard sign. Garden markers were made by member Martin Bruegel.
The harvest in 2010 provided 175 pounds of much appreciated fresh produce for the clients we regularly support with our monthly food collections.
The HUNGER Dilemma in the USA
Take a quiz at the Feeding America web site to see how much you know about the issue of hunger.
Last year in the U.S., a whopping 99 percent of food banks stated that they experienced an increase in the number of hungry people seeking help. This increase in need is a result of several factors including rising unemployment, the rising cost of food, mortgage and rent issues, and the rising cost of fuel.
Even more alarming is the fact that 81 percent of food banks say they’re unable to meet this high demand without reducing the amount of food given or their operations. Government money is way down and donations around the country are also down.
With the downturn in the economy local food cupboards are seeing growing crowds of people in need. "I can't believe I'm here" and "I feel embarrassed, like a loser" are comments that have been overheard, as increasing numbers of people who have never had to ask for help before come for emergency food. Job losses and home foreclosures will mean increasing demands on our food cupboards and we need to keep up our donations.
Contact Fiona Allison at fmallison@comcast.net or Trudy Warren at gtwarren@ccil.org for more information, or for more ways of supporting this program and the West Chester Food Cupboard. See below two Westminster volunteers working at the Food Cupboard.
