Tuesday, October 27, 2015

News You Can Use November 2015

For Your Church Newsletter
From Lutheran Community Services                

Editors: This information is prepared for church newsletter editors, secretaries and pastors. Your help in getting the word out is appreciated and will help LCS achieve its mission of “Sharing God’s blessings by helping others in need.” Comments about timing or content are welcome. Contact Steve Tindall (stindall@lcsde.org). 302 654 8886




Additional Resources for Long-Term Help


Our core services here at LCS are food and homelessness prevention assistance for low income people.  But many times interested folks want to know what steps we are taking to help people in need so that they won't need to come and see us again.  For homelessness prevention clients (those we help with back rent, mortgage, security deposits, or utilities), we do this by providing referrals to Clarifi for one-on-one financial literacy help before they come to our offices for their first appointment.  Clarifi is a nonprofit focused on financial literacy education.  Food clients can also attend classroom style financial literacy presentations when they visit LCS's food distributions.  This service is offered through $tand by Me, which is a state initiative.  So far this year, we have made two such presentations, to about 15 people each, and a third is planned.  Presentations begin with a discussion of attitudes about money before moving to traditional topics like credit repair and saving.
 
Another thing we provide for the long-term betterment of our clients is nutrition assistance.  With it, we reason, clients can fuel their bodies so they can do well in school, at home, or on the job.  We provide nutrition education literature at all food sites and classes at selected food sites.  This year we have held three nutrition classes (at Shiloh Baptist and St. Stephen's and Hope Lutheran) with the UD Cooperative Extension program.  Each program attracted 30 participants who are interested in nutrition for their families.  Topics include helpful information like shopping on a budget or making cost-effective nutritional dishes.
 

 LCS Garden Keeps Going

LCS planted a community pantry garden at its new site at 2809 Baynard Boulevard in Wilmington as a result of a grant from the Speer Trust.  So for this year , we have harvested over 200 pounds of fresh vegetables from the garden that we directed to Hanover Presbyterian's food pantry, which is a close and good partner.  We have extended our growing season as much as we could, and replanted (lettuce, carrots, and broccoli) in early October with a final harvest set for early November.  Tools and supplies for the garden were provided at cost by Fairfax Hardware- who we heartily thank.  Just as we want to thank Coverdale Farms for all the seedlings! 
 

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Volunteer Opportunities at St. Stephen's Pantry

HELP IS NEEDED NOW!


Lutheran Community Services (LCS) is currently seeking volunteers to work in our St. Stephen’s Food Pantry on N. Broom Street, near Trolley Square in Wilmington. Hours are 9am to 12pm and the pantry is open Monday – Friday and 4 - 7 pm on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month. Duties include stocking, bagging, filling referral requests from clients, and helping with shipments. Schedules are flexible and you can work as many days as you like. St. Stephen’s Pantry serves approximately 25,000 individuals a year, our largest and busiest pantry. 

If you would like to help and know you are making a difference please contact the LCS Volunteer Coordinator, Cher Frampton at
302-654-8886 x 107 or cframpton@yahoo.com to set up an interview.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

News You Can Use - October 2015


For Your Church Newsletter
From Lutheran Community Services                   

Editors: This information is prepared for church newsletter editors, secretaries and pastors. Your help in getting the word out is appreciated and will help LCS achieve its mission of “Sharing God’s blessings by helping others in need.” Comments about timing or content are welcome. Contact Steve Tindall (stindall@lcsde.org). 302 654 8886.

Hunger Walk Run Results
While funds will continue to trickle in, as of Tuesday, September 22, 2015, the amount raised at the annual LCS Hunger Walk Run was $38,538.27.  You can expect that number to continue to rise and reach approximately $40,000, which is $10,000 less than last year’s $50,000-plus effort. In any event, it was a wonderful day for a great event, which a lot of people thoroughly enjoyed – while they helped raise money for the LCS pantry system.

The church that brought the most people and got the award for the greatest turnout was St. Mark’s. Their group totaled 38 people. The second greatest turnout was a tie between Faith and Grace, which each brought 21 people. Third place in the greatest turnout category was also a tie, between Concordia and Good Shepherd, which each brought 18 people. The church that raised the most money was perennial winner Grace, with $13,727.27. The church which raised second most money was St. Mark’s with $6,697. Third place in terms of money raised went to St. Paul’s with $3,047.  The church that had the greatest participation was Concordia, which brought a number equal to 10.98% of their congregation. Second greatest participation went to Faith, with 8.43% of its congregation, while third went to St. Mark’s, with 7.42%.



The individual winner for the greatest amount raised was perennial winner (just like Grace, where she attends) Jan Hufnal. She raised $5,895 – breaking her own record set last year when she raised $5,130.  The adult raising the second most ($3,072) was James Nichol, from St. Mark’s. Third place went to Cheri Simons, from St. Paul’s, who raised $2,195.

Youth fundraisers were led by Dan Luettgen from Grace, who – following in Jan’s footsteps – raised $3,896! Hope Munson from Grace was second with $1,030. Third place in the youth fundraisers category went to Rachel Ierien,of Good Shepherd who raised $405.

The Youth Run 5K Race Against Hunger provided lots of excitement, as always. The girl’s winner was Jillian Boettler, who came in with a time of 31:44. Second place in the girl’s category went to Megan Derrickson (34:00). Third place went to Riley Keller (34:37). The boy’s winner was Josh Fickes with a time of 21:15. Second place for the boys went to Dan Luettgen (23:17), and third went to George Smallwood with a time of 45:32.
We want to extend our greatest appreciation to DJ GREEN, for answering our last minute post on
Facebook.  On September 16 we founded ourselves in the dire need on finding a DJ for the event. He was gracious enough to come and provide the even with great music and entertainment.