The Social Ministry Committee has a new name:
Social Concerns Committee
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September Benevolence Month
Sierra Pacific Synod
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We continue to support our monthly benevolences during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Keep your personal hygiene items coming. Also needed are socks for men and women and new underwear. There are two drop off periods every week, Tuesday from 4 - 6 pm and Thursday from 11 am - 1 pm, for people who stop by to drop off supplies.
Our thanks to those who continue to support this ministry. During this time of the pandemic the need for these items is even greater.
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COVID-19 Response Fund
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) provides ministry to its members, to those who are hurting and searching for peace, and to those in need. To continue this important work, the church needs your help.
With congregations and ministries across the country, and a network of companion churches and partners in over 70 countries around the world, we anticipate this crisis will affect us all. In the United States, unemployment has soared. We see rising demands on our food pantries, homeless shelters and social services. Around the world, millions of people living in poverty are facing this pandemic without reliable access to sanitation and health care.
Now is a time when we need one another. Now is a time to live and act as faithful people of God.
You can help by supporting your congregation and making a gift to the ELCA’s COVID-19 Response Fund. Your donation will provide funds to the ministries of the ELCA most in need and best positioned to help. This includes our congregations as well as local and churchwide ministries capable of reaching and assisting those in need.
To donate to the COVID-19 Response Fund you may send your donation to Hope Lutheran Church, marked COVID-19.
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Fair Trade is Stocked Up and Ready for Sale!
The fair trade cabinet is full and ready for customers. To find out what’s in stock, please peruse the accompanying product and price list.
To order your items simply call or email me (408-246-8478; knmeagher@gmail.com).
I will provide free, contactless delivery.
If you are not comfortable with that for any reason, accommodations can be made to pick up your items at the church.
Payment can be either check or cash upon delivery, sending a check through the mail, or you can simply run a tab and pay any time in the future.
Thanks for your support!
Thanks,
Kathy Meagher
408-246-8478
Fair Trade Product and Price List
(All products are organic and sold at cost)
Chocolates
All bars are $2.45 for 2.8 oz.
Milk Chocolate (43% cacao)
Dark Chocolate Orange
(65% cacao)
Dark Chocolate Mint Crunch
(67% cacao)
Very Dark (71% cacao)
Panama Extra Dark (80% cacao)
Extreme Dark Chocolate
(88% cacao)
Coffees
French Roast (dark roast)
$6.90 for 10 oz.
Sister’s Blend (medium roast) $8.20 for 1 lb.
French Vanilla
(medium roast, flavored)
$7.15 for 12 oz.
Decaf (medium roast)
$7.90 for 12 oz.
Teas
All boxes are $3.10 for 20 bags
English Breakfast
Green
Earl Grey
Ginger
Hot Cocoa Mix
$5.25 for 12 oz.
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Our Daily Bread Continues to Minister During the Pandemic
Our Daily Bread (ODB) continues to minister to the needy in our community despite the constraints that the pandemic has put on its regular hot meal service. Here is an update on how this ministry continues to serve safely and to whom.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday every diner receives a hot meal (usually with a hardboiled egg). The food is placed on a paper plate, wrapped in aluminum foil, and put in a plastic bag. A second plastic bag is prepared ahead of time, containing plastic utensils wrapped in a napkin, bottled water, a piece of fruit, and often a snack of some sort. Diners enter the front door, receive the two bags, then proceed down a line of tables stacked with other food items. They point to what they want and a volunteer places it their bag. When they get to the back door, they pick up a to-go drink before exiting.
ODB is currently operating with two shifts of volunteers each day. This is their attempt to ensure that they can continue working in the event a volunteer contracts the virus. Should that happen, the entire crew that has worked with the infected person will go on quarantine and the other shift will take over the full operation. So far, no volunteer has gotten the virus, and to our knowledge, no diner has either. Volunteers have their temperature checked at the beginning of each shift. Diners are not checked except that volunteers are on the alert to watch for symptoms of ill health.
When the County first banned communal dining in mid-March, ODB saw the number of diners drop immediately from around 250 per day down to 120. It stayed low like that for a while, then started slowly moving up. By the middle of July, ODB was averaging almost 190 diners/day. By the beginning of August, average numbers were over 220. Many of the current diners have been coming to ODB for years but every day there are a few new faces. With the expiration of the $600 per week federal unemployment benefit and many schools not reopening, ODB expects that they will see a steady increase in numbers of diners in the near future.
Volunteers continue to glean food from Trader Joe’s, Nob Hill, Lucky, Smart and Final, and Safeway which has allowed ODB diners to continue to receive nutritious and filling meals.
Financially ODB has been well supported. It has received a $25,000 gift from the Weidner Family Foundation, a $12,000 COVID-19 grant from Second Harvest Food Bank, and $17,000+ from St. Thomas from their federal CARES/PPP grant. In late July, ODB heard that their $13,500 grant application to Sunnyvale had been approved, which will cover through 2020 the same costs as the earlier Second Harvest grant. In addition, ODB continues to receive great support from individuals who are donating to help their neighbors through this crisis.
If you know of any individual or family in need of food assistance, please don’t hesitate to refer them to ODB. All are welcome and no questions are asked. Our Daily Bread is open every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11 am – 12:30 pm at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 231 Sunset Ave., Sunnyvale, 408-736-4108.
Kathy Meagher