First Fruits of the Cents-Ability Program

This article is from the September 2007 Hunger Action News, celebrating the “first fruits” of the Cents-Ability Program that our Presbytery initiated in November 2006. As of the end of 2007, more than $6,000 had been raised.

The Cents-Ability Grants Committee, made up of representatives of the eight participating congregations, has selected one domestic and one overseas project to receive the first Cents-Ability grants. The projects are The Friends of Jean Webster, Inc., Atlantic City; and The Lambi Fund, Haiti. Each of these will receive $750.To date, eight congregations have raised more than $2200.

The Lambi Fund is making a positive difference in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere where people must create their own opportunities for improving the lot of their families and communities. The fund supports small-scale economic development projects that give poor Haitians more control over their lives and resources. Their programs include alternative sustainable development, environment, organizational and leadership training, community micro-credit, and animal husbandry.

In the mid-1980’s when Jean Webster was working as a chef in an Atlantic City casino, she saw a man searching for food in a garbage can on a city street. She got him some fast food and told him to come to her house for a meal the next day. Then she invited him to bring others. In her prayers, she asked God what to do, and she heard God tell her to “feed my people.”

Since then Sister Jean has fed growing numbers of homeless and hungry people. Up to 350 people are fed each day, five days a week. About 85,000 meals are served in a year. But Sister Jean’s kitchen provides more than meals. She provides advice and counseling. Worship is available, as are clothing, blankets and holiday toys. Some guests are helped to find work, retraining, and housing. Many come to the kitchen for more than a meal—they come for hope.

The committee noted the enormous potential for raising funds and awareness in the fight against hunger. If every member of every congregation in our presbytery gave a penny a meal and prayed for people who are hungry we would raise over $150,000 in a year and who knows how God might transform us and the world around us in the process!

"The road to real democracy is a long one, but we have set our feet on that road, and we will not turn back!"

-Josette Perard, Lambi's Haiti office director.