Belmont Church Joins Mission:1 To Feed the Hungry

(Editor's note: the following information was provided by Micki Carter)

Exactly 1,111 items of food were delivered to or set aside for Samaritan House’s holiday food drive by the Congregational Church of Belmont last week as the church celebrated the United Church of Christ’s Mission:1 project.

The project, which culminated on 11-11-11 (hence, all the “ones”), focused on hunger issues worldwide. Besides gathering non-perishable food (more than 700 lbs. of it!), the Belmont congregation also wrote 111 letters to its members of Congress, urging support for a variety of hunger-related programs, and raised $1,111 for hunger-action purposes with agencies of justice and compassion throughout the United States and East African famine relief ministries.

“It has been a joy for me to watch the folks in our congregation (from young children to families and elders),” said the Rev. Kristi Denham, pastor at the Belmont church, “become so committed to a project that allowed us to contribute so much to the community in which we live as well as to the wider world."

”All the United Church of Christ congregations in the U.S. gathered 1,111,111 food items, wrote 11,111 letters and raised $111,111 for hunger-focused social welfare agencies," Denham added.

Members of the Belmont church is took an even more personal approach to hunger last week by sorting food at  Food Bank an activity they plan to make a regular occurrence.

Incidentally, the United Church of Christ tagline is “That they all may be one!”