• Two Cents Per Meal for the Hungry
• Meals for Ronald McDonald House in Camden
• Roadside Clean-up
• Souper Bowl Sunday for the Good Shepherd Dining Room in Bridgeton
• Cell Phones for Soldiers
Gift of the Heart Kits for Church World Service
From time to time, the youth group collects items we assemble into kits Church World Service distributes to people in need of them. One year, we made school kits for children in Afghanistan; another year, we made health kits. Church World Service takes our kits into some of the poorest and most dangerous places on earth. People in the church donate the items for whatever kind of kits we are making that year, and we put them together.
Here is the link to the part of the Church World Service website that explains the Gift of the Heart Kits
One time we made the kits, we had items left over. Church World Service has to keep all the kits of one kind the same, with the right number of each item. We wondered what we could do with the extra items, and we had quite a few. Our youth coordinator and pastor set up a contact with the Cumberland Women’s Center and them to a meeting place and gave them to the Center for the women and their children. We couldn’t know where the women and childen were living because they have to be kept safe.
We also made kits for the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Interestingly, one of our church members met someone who had been working in the Gulf states after the devastation, and the person had handed out Church World Service boxes of kits marked as coming from First Presbyterian Church, Bridgeton, NJ.
In 2010, the youth group sent 110 hygiene kits to Church World, primarilly for Haiti. Items left after all the complete kits had been put together go to either the Cumberland Women's Center or the Homeless Shelter.
Two Cents Per Meal for the Hungry
Our youth group asks the people of our church to put aside 2 cents for every meal they eat and, then, bring the pennies to a Sunday worship service. There is a container for them on one of the ushers’ tables. West Jersey Presbytery collects this money from all our participating churches in support of hunger programs. A penny may seem like nothing (there’s even a movement to do away with pennies), but presbyteries have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through this simple 2 cents per meal program. Some of the money collected we retain locally for the Good Shepherd Dining Room at St. Teresa of Avila Church in Bridgeton.
Meals for Ronald McDonald House in Camden
We have gone to Camden’s Ronald McDonald House to serve meals and have really appreciated the opportunity to meet the parents and siblings of some very sick children. We made friends and, hopefully, gave some comfort to the families.
In addition, the youth group has placed a box in the sanctuary to collect depleted printer ink cartridges. Recently, 153 cartridges were packaged and shipped for recycling, providing $306 for the Ronald McDonald House.
Every so often, the group has done a roadside clean-up to combine a service project with a fund-raiser.
Souper Bowl Sunday for the Good Shepherd Dining Room in Bridgeton
This year, 2010, the group raised $189 for the Dining Room which serves meals to people who need them five days a week. The group also sometimes goes to St. Teresa of Avila Church where the Good Shepherd Room is operated and helps serve a meal there.
The youth group has asked the congregation to donate old cell phones for recycling. The program applies money for the old phones to phone cards to be sent to people in our armed forces in Iraq or Afghanistan.
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Copyright © 2009, First Presbyterian Church of Bridgeton, NJ
119 West Commerce Street
Bridgeton, NJ 08302
(856) 455-0809
