Missions

WBCC is the church that feeds!

At our 2010 Annual Meeting the members of West Bloomfield UCC unanimously voted to adopt a signature mission..... and it is hunger relief. We will restore our quarterly food drive, arrange for regular work crews to visit area food pantries and soup kitchens, offer more freewill dinners and free luncheons through out the year and turn our biggest fundraiser, our Roast Beef Dinner, into a huge hunger-relief project by donating all the proceeds to Heifer International, FoodLink and other local food cupboards.

On October 16th, WBCC held our annual Rost Beef Dinner, after a year off. The dinner had been our major fundraiser for many many years, but fatigue and burn-out caused the dinner to not be scheduled for 2009. In Jan. of 2010 the church decided we would re-instate the dinner and instead of keeping the proceeds for ourselves, we voted to donate the money to local food pantries. The spark of giving gave new life to the dinner! The Roast Beef Dinner returned in 2010 and was a huge success! We are able to give $1000 to three different local food cupboards!

They Went Hungry so Others Could Eat: On Saturday March 26th 21 youth from Bloomfield participated in World Vision's 30 Hour Famine at the Ionia Methodist Church to raise money and awareness for world hunger. The children raised more than $2700 for World Vision!

During the event the children, in grades 6-12, voluntarily fasted for 30 hours. This was so that they would gain empathy for what it felt like to really be hungry. Through challenges and games they took on the identity of a child in Haiti and learned what life is like in the aftermath of a disaster where they could displaced from family, possibly injured, lacking food and water and unable to communicate.

Part of World Vision's 30 Hour Famine program is to do a community service project, so the children put on a spaghetti dinner Feast for Famine where they raised additional funds to be sent to World Vision. The dinner was sponsored purely by donations of food from local churches, with special thanks to Seven Bridges Farm of Lima for the donation of ground beef for meatballs.

World Vision is an organization that provides emergency relief in response to disasters and conflicts. They are currently supporting relief efforts in Japan. The event was planned by Sue Milton of Ionia United Methodist Church and Sarah Williams of West Bloomfield Congregational Church. Children from 5 congregations were represented.

Rev. Corey Keyes presents a check for $1,000 to each of three local food banks. Representatives for the food banks are (left to right) Anna Boonstra of F.I.S.H. Community Food Pantry, Renee Thornton of Honeoye's Community Food Pantry and Ron Williams of Bloomfield's Blessing Room.