Its Souper Bowl Time!

Once again CPC has accepted the challenge from Middle Island Presbyterian Church as to who can collect the most canned goods for the Long Island Council of Churches Food Pantry during the month of February.  This year seven other churches joined us.  Already the combined churches have collected almost 5,000 food items, and the month isn't over.

Below is a chart as to how CPC is doing.  We won last year, but we're currently in fifth place!  Invite your neighbors, your friends, your family, even colleagues at work, to join in helping Long Island's hungry families.

We Did It! CPC Wins Souper Bowl Collection

Thanks to Rob's abundant efforts, CPC more than survived a last minute surge by Middle Island and won the SouperBowl 2012 food collection competition. We'll receive the trophy on April 12th at the Presbytery Meeting in Roosevelt.

Here's the final standings.


Here are some pictures from Shirley Yang as they delivered all the food to the Long Island Council of Churches Food Pantry in Freeport.

Today's Souper Bowl Shopping Hint

Thanks to Don Neugebauer for catching the great deals on canned goods at Target. Campbells Condensed Soup four packs are $2.25 each. Goya tomato sauce is $.47 each. I was able to get 42 food items - soup, rice, beans and tomato sauce - for $25.

Souper Bowl Challenge

The Souper Bowl is a national collection for the hungry held on Super Bowl Sunday. Founded by the pastor of a Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, tens of thousands of churches, schools and youth organizations participate. For a full history go to the Souper Bowl web site.

The Souper Bowl Challenge began in 2011 when Middle Island Presbyterian Church challenged other congregations in the Presbytery of Long Island to a food collection contest during the month of February. The goal: collect as many food items as possible. The congregation that collected the most per member would win. That first year Malverne & Merrick accepted the challenge. Merrick won. In 2012 two other congregations: Yaphank and Bellmore have joined in the fun.

Current Souper Bowl standings as of February 19. Graph is of cans/member.

Children's Benefit Fair

Many thanks to Cadette Troop 2321 for organizing a Benefit Children's Fair to raise money for the Long Island Council of Churches Food Pantry and bring attention to Little Blessings Preschool. Check out the slide show for pictures.

Souper Bowl Food Drive Contest

Over the four Sundays in February, the congregation of CPC Malverne, CPC Merrick and Middle Island Presbyterian Church challenged each other to collect the most food for the Long Island Council of Churches food pantries in Freeport and Riverhead.

Merrick, the smallest of the churches, won, collecting 553 food items, or a wopping 8 food items per church member! Languishing in last place, they took the lead by collecting 281 cans on the last Sunday of the month.

Middle Island, the largest of the churches, took second place, collecting 724 food items, or 7.1 food items per church member. In second place going into the final Sunday, they maintained their position by collecting 265 food items on the last Sunday of the month.

Malverne, who was leading going into the final Sunday, collected only 41 food items going into the final Sunday of the month, ending with a total of 479 food items, or 5.71 food items per church member.

Combined, the congregations collected over 1,750 food items for the Freeport and Riverhead food pantries!

Food Drive 2010

June 6-12 will be CPC's annual food drive week. We'll begin the week by dropping leaflets on all our neighbors' doors. We'll end the week by collecting food from our neighbors and bringing it to the church. Didn't get a leaflet? Bring your food offering by CPC on Saturday, June 12 between 10 and 3. Don't live near Malverne? Join us by making a donation to your local food pantry or soup kitchen.

Here is why we do this:

On the phone today I talked with a neighbor, a well respected leader in Nassau County, where budget cuts by her employer reduced her job from full time to part time. Her husband had a stroke, leaving her the only wage earner. She is afraid she's going to loose her house. She may very well be a client at the Long Island Council of Church's Freeport Food Pantry.

Julie is a client. She works full time in an accounting office. She drives a new car, which she could not afford. The car, and other choices made during an addiction fueled out of control life, left her in debt and struggling to pay her bills. Now she's getting help for her addiction, paying down her debt and retaking control of her life. The food pantry helps her stretch her pay checks; its staff provide moral support and counsel.

Combine the stories and you get the statistics.

In 2008, the LICC Food Pantry served 3642 households. In 2009, almost 1,000 more. These households contained 13,000 individuals. Half were children. Six percent were senior citizens. The remaining adults were mostly employed, or recently laid off. Every month an additional 50 to 100 individuals come to the pantry who have never asked for assistance before.

CPC's annual food drive seeks to stock the pantry before the summer season, when donations drop off and the lack of free or reduced cost school meals increases the strain on family grocery budgets. To help, bring some of the below items to the church on Saturday, June 12 between 10 and 3.

Here is what the Food Pantry needs most to meet this increased need:

• Canned Vegetables (low salt)
• Soup (low salt/low fat)
• Canned fruit and 100% Fruit Juice (not fruit drink)
• Pasta, Rice Canned Beans
• Complete Pancake Mix
• Oatmeal, Grits, Dry Cereal (non/low sugar)
• Canned tuna/chicken/Salmon (in water) Canned Stew
• Nuts (low salt), Peanut Butter/Jelly
• Dry Milk/Parmalat
• Shampoo, Soap, Toiletries
• Clean, gently-used clothing
• diapers (all sizes), Enfamil formula, baby cereal, baby wipes and powder.

For more info:
Life in Difficult Times - How to Make It Through is a series of pod casts produced by the LICC that both inform those in need on how to get help and educate about the best ways to help. The series of three podcasts are available for $1.25 each by clicking the link above.

Food Drive a Great Success

Many thanks to everyone who came together to make our third annual Community Food Drive such a great success.  We knew that rising food prices were causing more people to rely on the Long Island Council of Churches Feeding Center to make it through each month.  We were afraid, however, that those same rising prices would limit our neighbors' generosity.  On Saturday morning, however, the food came pouring in from Malverne, Lynbrook, Valley Stream and elsewhere around southwest Nassau County.  

When each person selected some cans or boxes of pasta or baby food and put it out on their curb, they joined us in ministry and mission to our community.  Together we filled both a mini van and a pick-up truck to capacity with food.  Over the summer demand for food rises because kids no longer have access to free lunch.  Thanks to everyone who participated, the Feeding Center has a head start on the rush.  Thank you. 

Why We Care About Feeding Our Neighbors

The partnership between Community Presbyterian Church and the Long Island Council of Churches Food Pantry stretches back many years. Currently we collect a food offering on the third Sunday of each month, send teams of volunteers each Thursday and hold the annual Community Food Drive at the beginning of each summer. The early summer collection helps the food pantry meet increased summer demand at a time when donations drop off.

The imperative to feed the hungry and care for our neighbors who are poor runs throughout the Christian and Jewish scriptures. It is a basic ethic, a core value of Christianity. For me, that imperative is most clearly expressed in the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. The people are gathered, they are hungry, food is scarce and Jesus commands his disciples: "you give them something to eat." They were hungry, they had no food, they needed to be fed. There was no income check, no survey regarding who had eaten lunch or breakfast. Jesus just ordered the disciples to feed them. Their order is our order as well.

Hunger in our community is real. Just last week I received a call from a family in Lynbrook - the wife was disabled, the husband had just lost his job and they have four children. The Long Island Council of Churches has been seeing its client lists grow: elderly with high medical costs, those employed in low wage jobs, those squeezed by variable rate, sub prime mortgages, and lately those affected by high gas prices and increasing food costs. As a congregation most of us are blessed with food on our tables and enough income to buy extra groceries on occasion for our neighbors. We were honored to help the family in Lynbrook. We are honored to be one of the largest donors by congregation size to the food pantry.

So I hope you will join with us in following Jesus' mandate to "give them something to eat" by bringing some non-perishable food by the church (12 Nottingham Road, Malverne, NY) on Saturday, June 7 between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm. And if you are reading this from afar, buy extra groceries and drop them off at your local food pantry or soup kitchen. And while you are there, find out about volunteering.

Get a map showing the church location

Special Food Offering

Stan Bishop told us in church on Sunday just how much our food donations to the Long Island Council of Churches food prantry are appreciated. During the summers:

• Demand increases because children aren't in school
• Day camps come to the food pantry to help stretch their own meager budgets
• Vacations mean that donations are down

When Stan dropped off our July donations, they had only a single box of cereal left, and were almost completely out of food.

Pastor Fritz has called a Special Food Offering for the next two Sundays: July 29 and August 5.

Please bring what you are able, especially breakfast cereal, baby formula, and other staples. Remember, the food pantry also welcomes grocery store gift cards, so if you don't want to haul shopping bags to church with you, this is a great option.

Every person is made in the image of God. Recognize Christ in every person. Help touch the lives of the people who are living with hunger.

Virginia - Evening Prayer

Earlier this year our congregation was selected to participate in the Summer Collegium for the Small Church at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA.   This is an intimate gathering of 25 small church pastors and many of their spouses to discuss some of the cultures of small churches and the challenges and opportunities for ministry.  It will also hopefully be a time of spiritual renewal for me.  Periodically I'm going to be posting thoughts and observations.

One quick observation:  Last night during a "get to know you" exercise we were each asked to name an exciting thing happening in our churches.  And a silence filled the room.  We've been so trained that exciting things happen at big churches with tons of cool programs that we forget to seek excitement from how God is working among us.   Elisabeth and I did mention program things - myself, the leadership training we are doing in October and Elisabeth the just completed food drive, but perhaps the most exciting thing is how everyone is lifting Mrs. Burns up in prayer and is supporting Joe with the death of his mother.  God works as we relate to one another.

Finally - an evening prayer:

Lord,

It is night.

The night is for stillness.

  Let us be still in the presence of God.

It is night after a long day.

   What has been done has been done;

   what has not been done has not been done.

   Let it be.

The night is dark.

  Let our fears of the darkness of the world

  and of our own lives 

  rest in you.

The night is quiet.

  Let the quietness of your peace enfold us,

    all dear to us,

    and all who have no peace.

The night heralds the dawn.

  Let us look expectantly to a new day.

    new joys

   new possibilities.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Tuesday Thoughts

Wasn't it great to walk into church on Sunday morning and see all those groceries we collected during the food drive?

There's a tendency sometimes to be defeatist: oh, we're so small we can't do anything. People don't have time to help. No one will donate anything--no one really cares any more.

But guess what? With just a little bit of effort on our part, we accomplished a heck of a lot in the space of a week. We made contact with hundreds of neighbors through the door hangers, spoke with many more on the street while collecting the food, and touched the lives of everyone who will open one of those cans or boxes to feed their family.

Who'd a thunk it?

Well, Pete, for one, since the food drive was his brain child. Pastor Fritz, who encouraged and embraced that brain child, and everyone in the congregation who hung a hanger, prayed for the harvest, highlighted maps, stuck stickers, table sat, drove around collecting from door steps, and brought a bag of food themselves.

Seems to me that brain child has grown into a mature, generous, loving brain adult. We should be proud.

Door hangers!

Don't forget to wear your walking shoes to church tomorrow!

After church, as many of us as are able will spread out through the streets of Malverne distributing door hangers to our neighbors inviting them to join us in our annual food drive. If everyone pitches in, we'll be able to reach more homes than ever before.

We'll have goodies left over from the picnic this afternoon as motivation and energy boosters, plenty of hangers to go around, and good fellowship.

Let's make this a team effort and really get the word out.