Faith UCC Raises $1,000+ for Iowa City Free Lunch Program

I have written before that I attend a small UCC church in Iowa City called Faith United Church of Christ. We have roughly 50 members, but focus a lot of our time to supporting and promoting local and global charitable organizations, such as the Domestic Violence Intervention Program, the Shelter House, the Crisis Center, the Global Ministries Child Sponsorship Program, and Heifer International (to name a few).

When planning our annual budget, we establish monetary goals for the various groups that we support. However, we actively fund-raise internally for these different programs by holding special dinners or by doing special offerings during worship services. This approach helps remind the church's membership about what groups we support and why these groups are so important to our local and global communities.

I saw the following picture posted on the wall of Faith UCC's Facebook page. Faith United Church of Christ met our 2014 fundraising goal for the Iowa City Free Lunch Program last month! We raised $1,017 for the program as a result of our May 2014 Fiesta Dinner and through a special offering during one of our church services!

The above image was clipped from the print copy of the Iowa City Press-Citizen.

The Free Lunch Program is currently located at 1105 S. Gilbert Court in Iowa City. It offers free, nutritious meals to local residents. The meals are offered Monday through Saturday from 12-1 PM. The meals are provided by roughly three dozen volunteer groups. You can learn more about the Free Lunch Program here.

Meanwhile, the church just completed a major project collecting supplies to assist DVIP. Our current project is a backpack distribution project for nearby Mark Twain Elementary School.