Nickel-a-Meal: Thank You!

Thanks to all who contributed to Nickel-a-Meal last Sunday. $345.25 was collected. If you still want to contribute, it's not too late to drop it off at the church during office hours.

Nickel-a-Meal Offering: August 16

NAM is one of our ministries that helps those who need food, both here and abroad. The concept is simple. Put a nickel in a bank for each meal we eat. Small changes in our eating habits can add up to big changes for others. As well as grants to regional agencies, our money supports the health program of our Guatemala partnership ($14,600 for 2015) and helps provide food for poor children at Nkhoma Hospital in Malawi, Africa ($26,814) and orphans, being cared for by poor relatives, also in Malawi ($9,453).  Nickel a Meal $1.05/week = $54.75/yr. Save your change; make a change!

Nickel-a-Meal Collection

Nickel-A-Meal | $404.45

Thanks to all who filled the Nickel a Meal buckets after church last week, we are able to contribute $404.75 to the Nickel a Meal program.  If you didn't get your money in then, you can still do so.  Just be sure you identify it for "NAM".  And keep putting those nickels in your bank regularly for the August 16 collection.

Nickel-a-Meal Totals

Nickel-A-Meal Collection Total | $448.50

Last Sunday we received a total of $448.50 for our quarterly Nickel-A-Meal collection! Good job, kids! Keep adding a nickel into your bank for every meal - our next collection is in a few months.

Nickel-a-Meal Collection: September 28

Nickel-A-Meal Collection | September 28

It's almost time to unload your Nickel a Meal banks! There will be a display and information sheets available during the Courtyard Fellowship time after worship this Sunday.  Also available are activity booklets and banks for families with children who don't yet have them.

Containers Needed for Nickel-a-Meal Banks

Needed: Icing tubs, round plastic powdered drink containers (like Crystal Lite) and other similar containers that can be converted into a Nickel a Meal bank.  Please put them in the box in the narthex.  We need LOTS of them in time for the August 24 It's Your Serve SERVE Fair.

June 22: Nickel-a-Meal Collection

On Sunday, June 22, our children be taking up the Nickel a Meal collection after worship.  This simple program provides us with a daily reminder of the blessing of food that we have and the opportunity to share a nickel at each meal so that others may also be blessed. The money is distributed through the Presbytery to places far and wide.  Recently, $16,764 to be sent to Nkhoma Hospital in Malawi for food for the Children’s Ward.

Nickel-a-Meal Collection

Thank you to everyone who collected change for Nickel-a-Meal! We collected $341 to be distributed to worthy organizations.

Thank you!

Thanks to all who contributed to the Guatemala scholarship fundraising campaign. Our partner Jerusalem Church in Coatepeque will once again be able support local children financially with school expenses and spiritually as they invite the children and their parents to become part of their church family. Combining donations from alternative Christmas giving in December and gifts received in the last few weeks, Grace Covenant has been able to send $ 5866.11! Thanks to your great generosity, 30 students will be able to continue their studies when the 2014 school year starts in January.

In other thanks, the church collected $842.98 for Nickel-A-Meal! We'll have another collection in several more month, so keep saving that change!

Nickel-a-Meal Collection October 13

Please bring your nickel-banks to worship on October 13. They should be pretty heavy by now! We'll pool these with other churches in our presbytery to help support hunger-fighting ministries in WNC and abroad. There will be info about where the money has gone thus far in 2013 between now and the 13th.  Nickel a Meal...Make the change.

Nickel-a-Meal Update

Gratitude to all who participated in the Nickel-A-Meal program. $551.42 was collected last Sunday! If you wish to contribute, but have not done so yet, please do. Clearly mark your offering with "Nickel-A-Meal" so it gets to the correct place. Thank you!

Nickel-a-Meal Year-End Collection: December 9

Make the Change…Make a Difference

It’s time to empty those Nickel a Meal banks for the December 9 collection.  One nickel for three meals a day for 366 days comes out to $54.90 for the year.  $993.60  was collected in May.  

RELUFA logo

NICKEL A MEAL IN CAMEROON:  In the past two years about $20,000 Nickel a Meal offerings have been sent from the Presbytery of WNC to support the work of RELUFA, a national network of Cameroonian churches. and ecumenical and secular non-profit organizations. RELUFA has a wide range of activities developed around three main themes: food sovereignty, economic development and just relations.  Examples of their activities are: supporting community projects for food security; advocating the rights of indigenous peoples; micro-credit programs; outreach programs for at-risk youth.

Food sovereignty Program supported by Nickel a Meal: With the Sahara desert stretching out over the Far North Province, this part of Cameroon is permanently at the brink of famine. Through the establishment of community cereal banking systems in vulnerable villages, it is possible to break the annual cycle of exploitation by businessmen who buy subsistence farmers’ grain  for very low prices when it is abundant, then sell it back at exorbitant prices when grain is scarce.  By being able to store the grain themselves, communities control its availability.  Poor families are not forced to sell precious goats to purchase  food; they can be sold instead for other family expenses, such as sending their children to school. 

Overview of NAM for those who are new to GCPC or need a refresher course:

Nickel a Meal (NAM) is a very simple plan.  Everybody…young, old or in the middle…rich, poor or in the middle…can participate equally.  There are 3 parts to the program:  PRAYER: DISCOVERY: ACTION. Each person puts 5 cents in a designated container for each meal eaten.  That is the easily understood action.  But prayer for both those who are hungry and for ourselves as we attempt to live faithfully in a world where there is hunger and injustice is vital to real change.  And learning more, the discovery part, is important to intelligent action.

When combined with other offerings from us here at GCPC and many others from churches in the Presbytery of Western North Carolina, more than $100,000 has been given each year to programs combating hunger, homelessness and poverty.  40-45% goes to local ministries and 55-60% goes to program abroad.  See the 2011 Annual Report here. The report for 2012 will be available in January.

Nickel-a-Meal Update

Activity pamphlets for children are available in the narthex. The fall emphasis is Western North Carolina.  40% of the money collected by the churches in our Presbytery is used to support agencies and programs in this region.  $15,177.55 was disbursed the first half of this year. Grace Covenant contributed $993.60 in May.  The second collection for this year will be December 10.  Nickel a Meal - Make the Change!

Nickel-a-Meal Update

$567.35 was collected last week to support ministries here and abroad that help those who are hungry. Thanks to all who participated! Keep those banks and jars near where you eat as a daily reminder to put in your offering and to pray for both those who need help and ourselves as God's co-partners in the fight against hunger. We will have our next collection in a few months.

Nickel-A-Meal Offering: May 20

Have you been filling your banks? It's been 140 days since our last collection, which translates into 421 nickels, or $21. Please look for our Children/Youth by the doors with collection buckets. This offering makes a difference! 55% of the money goes to international programs, such as aiding the Orphanage in Malawi or providing food for the children's ward there; the rest stays right here in our area. 

Presbyterian Hunger Program

Alleviating hunger and eliminating its causes: Impact through seeds

Click here to hear mission coworker Mark Hare talk about the impact that seeds – provided in part by PHP and PDA – have had in Haiti’s recovery. The program is about “providing seeds as a way for Haitians to be Haitians” and “providing people options so that they can recover themselves.”  GCPC supports this program in various ways, including through Nickel a Meal and Reclaiming Christmas.

Profile: Nickel a Meal

The Presbytery sent Nickel a Meal money to Sur Occidente and Suchitepequez
Presbyteries to buy food supplies for victims of severe flooding in 2010.

Nickel a Meal is a very simple plan. Everybody…young, old or in the middle…rich, poor or in the middle…can participate equally. Each person puts 5 cents in a designated container for each meal eaten, then brings it to church when the offering is collected, usually four times a year.






The money is sent to Presbytery where the Hunger Committee distributes it as follows:
International projects 55%
Regional projects 40%
Education and Administrative costs up to 5%
(with the unused portion allocated to international projects)


Ruben Morales, pastor of our partner church, Iglesia Jerusalem,
unloads emergency food supplies for victims of flooding.

In 2010 and until mid-year in 2011, Nickel a Meal disbursed $176,428.25. Programs supported by GCPC received grants as follows:


Regional
A HOPE Day Center $3000
Loving Food Resources $3000
Supersizing Souper Bowl at GCPC in 2011 $341.50
(Increasing the amount raised by our youth ($683.00) by 50%. Divided between Manna Food Bank and ABCCM).



International Programs
Haiti: Seeds for Haitian Farmers (Mark Hare) $6000
Malawi: Nkhoma Orphan Feed & Seed Project (Dr. Nagy) $30,000
Guatemala: Food Relief in Suchitepequez & Sur
Occidente Presbyteries after 2010 flooding $3,000

To read full 2010 Nickel a Meal report scroll down to Nickel a Meal at the Presbytery of WNC web site: http://www.presbyterywnc.org/content/mission_zone/hunger_program/.
Ginnie Stevens has the 2011 Mid-year report.  

At Loving Food Resources, food, health and personal care items are provided each week
to an average of 86 people living with HIV/AIDS or who are in home hospice care. 

The program has languished in the past year for lack of leadership so a group is being formed now that will both develop ways to promote participation by all ages in all three aspects of the program: prayer, discovery and action, and also take care of the practical details of managing it. Anyone who may be interested is encouraged to contact Ginnie Stevens: vestevens2@gmail.com; 253-0159 (h); 585-739-4890 (c).


Time Commitments & Responsibilities to be divided among the group according to interests, skills, and time availability:

+ A couple of 2-hour meetings in October and early November to develop a plan of action; then probably four meetings of about 2 hours each in 2011.

+ 1 hour two to four times a year to count the offering; maybe families with grade school and above children could do this once or twice a year.

+ Write some simple family devotionals or interpretative material for the SERVE blog, church newsletters etc. (A format will be provided for devotionals.)

+ Collect small plastic containers so children can make new banks.

+ Other as the group discovers as we move on.

5 Cents-a-Meal makes Sense…

and a Difference!