Cents-Ability Grants in Monmouth Presbytery

The Cents-Ability Grants Committee—a group made up of representatives from every congregation that participates in the program—had done its homework. There was a committee charter, guidelines for grants, an application form, and requests for funding from hunger ministries within the bounds of the Presbytery. They lit a candle to remind them of Jesus’ presence, prayed for guidance, checked on how much money was available, and discussed each application with care. By the end of the meeting, a consensus had been reached and grants totaling $4,250 ma de to The Christian Caring Center, Forked River Hunger Action Team’s Summer Program, the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Lunch Break, The Center in Asbury Park, St. Gregory’s Pantry in Point Pleasant, Jamesburg Presbyterian Church Deacons Food Cupboard, and the Samaritan Center. We thank God for the faithfulness and stewardship of the committee, for the gifts that came from so many, and the ministries that will be made possible from all those pennies!

The Christian Caring Center –Pemberton: $1,000. This program serves Continental breakfast and a hot cooked lunch 6 days/week. They also go out to the woods on Wednesdays and Fridays to a population that lives there. They bring lunch, talk to them about services available to them and offer support. In 2007 12, 976 meals were served. In addition, this program offers homeless survival kits: pop top can goods, non cooking foods, fruit juices, crackers, etc. They are also working to help individuals escape from welfare dependency and achieve economic self-dependency; as well as reduce the incidence of Hunger in Burlington County caused by lack of adequate food and nutrition.

Forked River Presbyterian Church – Hunger Action Team Summer Program: $400. This is a new program at Forked River, aimed at providing fresh produce to the hungry and breakfast/lunch bags for children – once a month from June-September. They have identified a specific need during the summer months – the children who normally receive free or reduced breakfast/lunch at school, are without that supplement during the summer months. They hope to expand this program as time goes on.

Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean County - $500. The Food Bank distributes to food pantries throughout Monmouth and Ocean Counties. As such, they are affiliated with America’s Second Harvest, a program which not only addresses hunger, but also waste of food products, and the root causes of hunger, and how we can begin to alleviate them.

St. Gregory’s Pantry (Point Pleasant): $1000. An emergency food pantry, which operates year round, serving families in need in the greater Point Pleasant area. St. Gregory’s gives temporary aid (a 4 day supply of food and personal items) to approximately 1200 individuals annually. 200-250 additional families are assisted during the holidays. They serve the elderly, young single mothers, persons with illness or disability, and low-income working families.

Lunch Break (Red Bank): $300. Monmouth County’s first “soup kitchen” this organization provides free hot and nutritious lunches Monday-Friday to 60 – 100 men, women and children. More than 20 lunches are taken to the homebound. Social, Medical and legal services are available on site. Clothing, baby supplies and special food baskets are also offered throughout the year. On a yearly basis, Lunch Break serves over 24,000 people.

The Center in Asbury Park: $300. The Center serves over 50 hot lunches to those afflicted with HIV/AIDS living in Monmouth and Ocean Counties. The Center also houses 25 formerly homeless individuals on site. Their volunteers offer love and support to these neediest of people.

Jamesburg Presbyterian Church – Deacons Food Cupboard: $250. The Food Cupboard is currently expanding its operation to a handicapped accessible facility. The grant will assist in completing the relocation.

Samaritan Center, Inc.(Manalapan-Englishtown): $500. This food bank serves working poor families by providing supplemental weekly groceries, as well as school supplies for children, and holiday food baskets. The program provides basic needs for approximately 83 families – 70% of whom cannot get help from other social services organizations because they make too much money.

Three Cents-Ability Grants Announced

The Cents-Ability Grants Committee approved grants of $750 each to three hunger projects chosen from the Break Free From Hunger catalog of the Presbyterian Hunger Program. (In accordance with the Cents-Ability Program guidelines, 60% of the funds collected is used for grants outside the bounds of the Presbytery.) One of the projects is located in nearby Trenton, NJ; the others are in Gambia and Ethiopia.

The ISLES Community Gardens Program is a community development and environmental organization that fosters a permanent and community-based solution to the problems of hunger and urban blight. ISLES maintains 43 gardens that provide fresh produce to low-income families in Trenton. The benefits include fresh garden produce that provides nutrition and promotes healthy lifestyles; a place for after-school activities in which students learn about sustainable living concepts; and an opportunity for senior citizens to become intergenerational links with the community.

The Development Program for the Meshangir Community Near Dembi Dollo, Ethiopia was developed in response to a request of the Meshangir people of Ethiopia. For countless generations, the Meshangir lived as nomad hunters, but their lifestyle changed dramatically when the Ethiopian government disarmed the people, making it necessary to transition from living as nomad hunters to living in a settled community. The program introduces sustainable food production techniques and develops income-generating products based on the traditional skills of the people.

In Senegal, the Moringa tree has been called the “miracle tree” because it is easy to grow and provides significant nutritional benefitis. Church World Service worked with local partners in Senegal for several years on a Moringa pilot project. Our gift to the Gambia Nutrition Program is an expansion of the pilot project into the West African country of Gambia. This expansion will extend the benefits of the Moringa to many more mothers and children while offering an opportunity for scientific research to validate the Moringa’s nutritional and socio-economic benefits.

Hunger Resources Available at the Presbytery Office

Looking for "good stuff" to enliven your hunger program? The following are available at the Presbytery office in Tennent. Some are for purchase, others are free.

1. Hunger Next Door, an 8-minute video from Shoprite's Partners in Caring is a good introduction to hunger in our communities; free.
2. Just Eating? Practicing Our Faith at the Table, an excellent curriculum, for 5, 7, or 13 sessions, that explores various aspects of our relationship with food and ways to practice our faith. Leader's Guide is $6.50, Partipant's book is $3.
3. Cents-Ability Kits containing info on: Getting Started, Worship Resources, Educational Resources, Promotion, and Sample Forms. Free.
4. Talking with Children and Youth about Sweat-Free Ts: a script to introduce Sweat-Free Ts to upper elementary and middle school-age students. Adaptable for younger and older groups. Free.

There's more, and I promise to add to this list. In the meantime, if you're looking for something, please feel free to call or e-mail.

A Super Souper Bowl Story

It's always exciting to hear stories and creative ideas from churches. Candy Peterson from Morning Star sent this in:

"By the way, we did take your advice and do the 'Souper Bowl of Caring,' but we didn't collect money for it (we are going to have another Cents-Ability collection at the end of this month and didn't want to interfere with that); we just collected soup, and people brought lots of it! We stocked our food pantry with soup as well as giving quite a large amount to an outside ministry named Lakewood Outreach Ministry, a ministry that cares for the homeless people in our area. We have joined with them and helped to raise money for 'tent kits' and food."

Wanted: Applications for Cents-Ability Grants within the Presbytery

The Cents-Ability Grants Committee (made up of representatives of participating congregations) has completed design of the process for applying for and receiving grants from our Presbytery’s Cents-Ability program.

Cents-Ability is a strategy for raising hunger awareness and funds. Presbyteries throughout the U.S. have been “doing” Cents-Ability for many years; Monmouth Presbytery began the program in November 2006. Money raised through the program is used in a partnership model to fund hunger ministries near and far: 40% within the bounds of Monmouth Presbytery and 60% in the U.S. and around the world.

All congregations are encouraged to apply for a grant for their own hunger ministries or to invite organizations they support to apply (with endorsement by a local church session). Completed applications should be submitted by April 8, 2008 and will be considered at our meeting on May 6.

We are excited about Cents-Ability and its potential for raising funds and awareness in the fight against hunger. Awareness of hunger can and often does transform people, congregations, communities, and, of course, hungry people. It’s a mission that, with a little interpretation, people can feel really good about and be inspired to be generous toward. Good stories are coming out of congregations that are participating:

· Judy Ross, Jacksonville’s coordinator, reports that the Youth Group made bags of rice with this message: “This two ounces of rice represents the daily diet of 852 million in the world. More than half of these are children. Imagine that you have this small bag of rice as your only food for the day, and that you probably have to walk a distance to get the water in which to cook it.” After the children’s sermon the kids passed them out to everyone in church. Holding that small amount in their hand made a big impact in understanding the reality of hunger.

· Betty Taylor, Forked River’s Cents-Ability Grants Committee representative, reported hearing their Hunger Action Team leader saying, “Wow, last Sunday [when we received the monthly offering] we received over $400 again!”

If every member of every congregation in our Presbytery gave just 1 penny every meal, every day, and prayed for people who are hungry, we would raise over $150,000 per year—and only God knows how we ourselves would be transformed!

The Cents-Ability Grants Application form is on-line. For more information about the grants process or the program and how to promote it, please contact our Hunger Action Enabler, Rev. Phyllis Zoon, at 201-910-7047.

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.