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! 

 

2013 Annual Report to Congregations

In 2013 LCS decided to focus on the theme “Together We Can,” emphasizing the importance of our donors and volunteers.  Without the hard work and dedication of our supporters, our small staff would never have been able to assist an estimated 100,000 people with food and housing for the second year in a row!

This year we added a seventeenth food program! The new monthly food distribution, (formerly known as a Grocery Club) titled Haven of Caring, takes place at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. This partnership with Bethel AME largely serves the residents of the Beautiful Gate Outreach Center located behind the church. Together LCS and Bethel AME are now able to help provide more for basic needs of our community.

In a few short months this year, LCS added three new Home Repair Specialists to our Home Repair program. With six trained handymen now available to assist senior citizens and the disabled with small home repair, we’re on track to complete 95 repairs this year – a 67% increase over last year!

The 22^nd Annual Hunger Walk Run also saw new community engagement when we added online registration software which allowed participants to create their own fundraising pages and use social networking and email to ask their friends and families for support.  With collecting sponsorships easier than ever, we saw a rise in both the number of people who collected sponsorships (137 in 2012 and 151 in 2013) and the average amount brought in per participant ($105.48 in 2012 and $126.24 in 2013). Records were set in youth, adult, and church fundraising.

Looking forward to 2014, LCS will be moving into a new headquarters. St. Stephen’s is selling our current building, necessitating the move, but the growth we’ve experiences in both need and support make this the perfect time for change. We’re excited about the prospect of merging our staff under one roof!

-Prepared by Steve Tindall