Outreach Board
The Outreach Board (OB) shares our congregation’s time, treasure and talents with the world outside the walls of our church. The Outreach Board seeks the active involvement of our church members in making the world better through the use of our time, our money and what we can do. We facilitate and raise awareness of the special offerings of our church’s dual affiliations: the UCC and DC.
In recent years we have co-sponsored refugee families, providing their immediate material needs and introducing them to the Buffalo area. We have held lunches, sold sub sandwiches, had bake sales and held a rummage sale – all to earn money to be able to co-sponsor a family. It takes the entire church to pull together all that a refugee family needs.
We continue to seek new ways to uphold our congregation’s and denominations’ commitments to doing God’s work on earth through spreading Jesus’ message of social justice and love. If you are looking for a way to make a difference in the church, in people’s lives, locally or far away, please consider joining the Outreach Board.
Special Outreach Notes
Taste of Dunkirk: As a fundraiser, the Dunkirk Conference Center is again offering some specialties of the cook, Annie. In January the dish is chili. February’s specialty is chicken and biscuits. March will bring a rich macaroni and cheese. Please see Jean Haller to order these tasty treats you don’t have to cook! Thank you.
The Outreach Board’s focus in January is twofold. We want to intentionally focus on hunger/food especially during this tough economic time for many, particularly those who have lost jobs and those who do not make enough money to provide their family with heat and food. We are asking that each family bring a canned soup, stew, meat, vegetable or other nonperishable item to church with them each Sunday in January. There are five Sundays, so we will be able to have quite a collection. We plan to split the food among the three food pantries we have helped in the past – The Network, University Presbyterian Food Shelf and the Black Rock/Riverside Food Pantry. The need is great enough that if you have more to share, please do so. In February on Super Bowl Sunday, we will celebrate with a Souper Bowl collection of dollar bills for a food pantry.
Our other focus in January is on our Refugee Assistance Fund. The fund is used for food, clothing, immediate-need furniture (stove, refrigerator, kitchen table, chairs, etc.), emergency rent/security deposit, and a host of smaller necessities. Rat poison was one of the more recent purchases for two Buffalo families, one we co-sponsored and the other the downstairs neighbors. This fund is not limited to helping the families we co-sponsor with Journey’s End. The offering will be received on Jan. 24.
Amherst Community Church