Holiday Joy Funds Distributed
What happens with the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter special offerings we collect? I am glad you asked! Each holiday, we have the opportunity to give to our Holiday Joy offerings, where special envelopes are distributed. As usual, SUM responds generously. This year, the combined offerings equaled $3,699. We are grateful for your big-heartedness. These funds are put to good use.
The Justice and Joy leaders (the outreach arm of SUM) meet regularly to discuss the ministries they represent. Each ministry leader gives an update on their mission, including the status of needs. See the list below for a list of our ministries and missions and the names of the volunteer leaders.
The greatest needs now are with our Meal Packing and South Park Inn ministries.
Meal Packing
We host two meal-packing events each year. People from SUM and the surrounding communities flock to have the chance to assemble dry ingredients to make bags of nutritious soup that are donated to local food banks. For example, our April event produced and distributed 96 cases of Minestrone soup. New recipients from this event included the Granby Food Bank and the Simsbury School Nurses backpack program. Half of the event was underwritten by the Fidelity Investments West Hartford office, including the participation of about 20 volunteers and their families.
Jen Zeronsa does a wonderful job managing all the communications, maintaining the relationship with the partnering organization, and coordinating the logistics for the work on the event day. You may need to realize the tremendous task entailed raising the $7,000 needed to purchase the food components for the event. She talks to local businesses, and corporations and is learning how to write grants to fund the effort. The job is challenging. The J&J team decided to jump-start the fundraising for the upcoming October event with $2,000 from the Holiday Joy funds. Thank you!
Click here to donate to the October meal-packing event. You can also write a check to SUM with “Meal-Packing Event” written in the memo line. A portion of your donation will go toward hunger relief for those impacted by the fires in Maui.
South Park Inn
South Park Inn’s mission is to improve our community by providing equal access to shelter and solutions for all people to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring. SUM has a long history of supplying meals and providing Christian hospitality to the clients of the South Park Inn population. We shop for groceries, prepare food, and serve meals once a month.
Sue and Mike Sames lead this ministry. They are on hand to work with food purchasing and preparation. They frequently drive to Hartford to serve the meals themselves. We depend on SUM faith community donations to pay for the monthly groceries needed for the meals - $350 each month. Lately, the funds have been short. The J&J team decided to fund three months' worth of groceries to carry the ministry through the summer. Sue and Mike thank you for your ongoing support. They welcome your ideas for fundraising to purchase groceries so we can continue the ministry in the Fall.
If you wish to donate towards South Park groceries, write a check to SUMC with “South Park Inn” on the memo line.
Thanks so much!
- Deacon Deb
Justice & Joy Leaders and Ministries
Barbara Vasquenza - Northwestern Connecticut Community College Food Bank
Sue & Mike Sames - Welcoming Project (refugees), South Park Inn, & Kenya Scholarships
Jan Baker - Days for Girls
Sandy Lipscomb - liaison to Kits for Kids & Friendly Visitors
Dorothy Kramer-Kawakami - liaison to Susanna Circle
Libby Easton-May - liaison to For All Ages
Debbie Dunn - Pollinator Garden & Environment
Jen Zeronsa - Meal Packing
Melissa Fearrington - Covenant to Care for Children
Eileen Brogan - liaison to A Promise to Jordan
Susan Samuel - Veterans Affairs
Cassandra Broadus-Garcia - VIM, Disaster Response