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Unitarian Church of Sharon
4 N. Main St.
Sharon, MA 02067
781-784-3652
E-mail UCS
UCS Social Justice News
Fill the Box ChallengeThe UCS Social Justice Committee is issuing a challenge for the month of January! We have a new collection cabinet to collect food items for the Stoughton/ Sharon Food Pantry. Starting January 9th, the SJC is challenging members and friends of UCS to bring can food donations to fill the box every Sunday in January.
The food pantries report that January/February is the hardest time of the year for them to meet the demand for food assistance. Everyone tends to give generously for the holidays, but the need continues through the winter months. The Stoughton/Sharon Food Pantry recently reported serving upwards of 50 clients per week. One client typically shops for up to six additional family members, therefore the Food Pantry is serving upwards of 250-300 people per week. They especially need protein items such as canned meats and soups and side dishes like Hamburger Helper and condiments. If everyone at UCS brings one to three cans every Sunday, we can fill the box and help the Stoughton/Sharon Food Pantry meet the demand.
Additionally, the “Brown Envelope” offerings for January will support the five local food pantries in Canton, Foxboro, Norwood, Stoughton/Sharon and Walpole. Our monetary contributions will help them buy staples and other needed supplies.
Dinners at MainSpring House – On Sunday, January 30th, our church will provide dinner for the homeless clients of MainSpring house in Brockton. We will need volunteers to staff a small crew from 4-6 PM to set up and serve the meal and then do cleanup. We will also need a volunteer shopper, and bakers to contribute home-baked desserts. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Mia Joiner-Moore. Additional dates in March and May for others to volunteer.
A collection box for recycling cell phones is in the coat closet on the second floor. New Hope, Inc. has a goal of collecting 5,000 used cell phones between now and June 30, 2011. All donated used cell phones will be recycled, and proceeds will benefit their clients. For more information, please see www.new-hope.org or talk with Licia Rando. Thank you for your donations!
Upcoming Dates:
• January 10th, 7:30 PM – Next Meeting of the SJC (All are welcome!)
• January 23rd, Coffee Hour – Lunch Making for MainSpring House
• January 30th, 4:00-6:00 PM – Serve Dinner at MainSpring House
• March 30th, 4:00-6:00 PM – Serve Dinner at MainSpring House
• May 29th, 4:00-6:00 PM – Serve Dinner at MainSpring House
Comments and suggestions to the SJC can be sent to justicecommittee@uusharon.org. Meet the challenge and Fill the Box!
December 2010
The “Brown Envelope” offerings for December will support Gifts for Kids and provide for lunch and dinner supplies for MainSpring House. If you would like more information about Gifts for Kids, please talk with Alison Reid or Pat McDougal. If you would like more information about Father Bills & MainSpring, please see www.fatherbillsmainspring.org or talk with a member of the Social Justice Committee.
Upcoming Dates:
December 12, Noon – Next Meeting of the SJC (All are welcome!)
December 19, Coffee Hour – Lunch Making for MainSpring House
December 21-27 – Visit with Partner Church Minister's Family
January 30, 4:00-6:00 PM – Serve Dinner at MainSpring House
March 30, 4:00-6:00 PM – Serve Dinner at MainSpring House
May 29, 4:00-6:00 PM – Serve Dinner at MainSpring House
Dinners at MainSpring House – On Sunday, January 30th, our church will provide dinner for the homeless clients of MainSpring house in Brockton. We will need volunteers to staff a small crew from 4-6 PM to set up and serve the meal and then do cleanup. We will also need a volunteer shopper, and bakers to contribute home-baked desserts. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Mia Joiner-Moore. Additional dates in March and May for others to volunteer.
After completing 18 hours of training with the Literacy Volunteers of Stoughton/Sharon, Janet Schmidt and Alice Springer are working together to lead a Saturday morning ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) conversation class for 5-10 local adult immigrants from a variety of language backgrounds, some who have lived in the Sharon area for many years, and some who have recently arrived. The SJC is pleased to be able to help meet the needs of immigrants in our community by hosting the class at our church. Please contact Janet if you would like to know more.
Congratulations and Thank You, to the youth who participated in Trick or Treat collections for UNICEF – Pakistan Relief Fund! $148 was collected. Great work!
The Fair Trade Table is open during coffee hour with delicious chocolates, coffees, teas, nuts and berries. Profits from the Fair Trade sales fund the Social Justice Reserve Fund which allows the SJC to respond quickly to emergency requests. “Stop by the table and purchase your treats for a good cause – they make great Holiday Gifts too!”
Please donate can food items to the Stoughton-Sharon Food Pantry by depositing your donations in the baskets in the second floor coat closet. A SJC committee member will then transport them to the Food Pantry. Also in that closet, is a collection box for New Hope. They have a goal of collecting 5,000 used cell phones between now and June 30, 2011. All donated used cell phones will be recycled, and proceeds will benefit their clients. Thank you for your donations!
The next meeting of the SJC will be on Sunday, December 12th, at Noon. All are welcome to attend. If you are not able to attend but have comments and suggestions, please send them via email to justicecommittee@uusharon.org.
Happy Holidays from the UCS Social Justice Committee!
October 2010
The “Brown Envelope” offerings for the month of October will be split between supporting UUA’s Association Sunday and the UUSC-UUA Joint Pakistan Flood Relief Fund.
UCS will join thousands of UUs in honoring Association Sunday with a special collection that will celebrate the past 50 years of UUism and the future of our faith. Proceeds from this year’s Association Sunday special collection will go to ensuring that our faith thrives for generations to come. In the spring of 2010, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) embarked on an in-depth strategic review of leadership and growth in order to develop an action plan to strengthen our community for future generations. For more information, please see www.uua.org (Giving then Association Sunday).
“We want congregations that are spiritually deep places where strong and enduring relationships can flourish, and that are engaged in their communities as sources of moral vision and effective action. We want our religious homes to be truly multi-generational and reflect the racial and cultural diversity of the wider world. And, we want professional religious leaders who are visionary, spiritual, innovative, and diverse. —The Rev. Peter Morales, President of the UUA
The massive flooding in Pakistan continues to worsen, compelling UUSC and UUA to launch the UUSC-UUA Joint Pakistan Flood Relief Fund. Donations to this fund will go immediately to two of UUSC’s partners who are responding to the crisis in Pakistan with a specific focus on the needs of women and unaccompanied children. Bedari, which partnered with UUSC in response to the 2005 South Asia earthquake, is working to protect women and children displaced by the floods. Bedari has established a support center in a makeshift camp of 3,000 people in Nowshera. Barakat, a UUSC partner in Afghanistan that also works in Pakistan, is helping refugee families who have fled to the district of Attock, Punjab – a town of Afghan refugees. To read more about these efforts, please go to www.uusc.org.
Dinner at MainSpring House - The Social Justice Committee is making plans to serve dinner to the clients of MainSpring House in Brockton on Sunday, October 31st. We will donate the food (main dish and vegetable) in advance, funded by “brown envelope” offerings and Equal Exchange sales. The kitchen staff at MainSpring will prepare the food on Sunday afternoon. Our group will arrive at 4 p.m. to serve the meal and assist in the kitchen from 4:30-5:30 pm, help with clean up, and be ready to leave by 5:45-6:00. We need a group of 6-8 adults and older youth to work during these hours. We also need volunteers to bake dessert items (Halloween-themed goodies are welcome). Please contact Janet Schmidt if you would like to volunteer on the 31st, or if you’d like to help before that date with shopping or baking desserts.
Lunches for MainSpring House – Thank you to the volunteers who helped make 100 lunches for MainSpring in September. The crew set a record production time even with an additional 15 lunches. The date of the next lunch-making is Sunday, October 17th during coffee hour. It is team effort of all ages, so please plan to volunteer.
Clothes for the World, Inc. (via Erin Rosenbaum, Founder and Director) is collecting clothes items to distribute in Panama in December/January in preparation for the holidays and school year. In Panama, school starts in March. Please drop-off clothes donations at the Mills house at 31 Maple Ave. in Sharon. Also, cash donations are needed to meet the cost of packaging and shipping internationally. For more information, please see http://cftworld.squarespace.com.
The Fair Trade Table is open during coffee hour with delicious chocolates, coffees, teas, nuts and berries. Profits from the Fair Trade sales fund the Social Justice Reserve Fund which allows the SJC to respond quickly to emergency requests. “Stop by the table and purchase your treats for a good cause!”
The SJC would like to ask you to continue to support the Stoughton-Sharon Food Pantry with your can food donations this church year. Please deposit your donations in the baskets in the second floor coat closet. A SJC committee member will then transport them to the Food Pantry. Thank you!
The SJC welcomes comments and suggestions. Please send them via email to justicecommittee@uusharon.org.
September 2010
The “Brown Envelope” offerings for the month of September will go towards purchasing the supplies for making the monthly lunches for Father Bill’s & MainSpring, specifically for MainSpring House clients in Brockton. On August 20th, Rev. Jim Robinson, Gare Reid and Mia Joiner-Moore visited with Tom Washington, Director of MainSpring House and Serenity Belo, Major Gifts Coordinator. Tom and Serenity expressed their gratitude to UCS for our dependable supply of monthly lunches and their hope that we will continue to provide this service for the coming year. Everyday their clients leave the shelter at 8:30 AM and cannot return until 4:30 PM. Our lunches ensure that they will have a meal until they can return that night for dinner at the shelter. Currently, MainSpring House provides an average of 100 meals per night.
Father Bill’s and MainSpring is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to ending homelessness in the South Shore. They offer a range of programs and services to meet the needs of each person facing homelessness. Their primary areas of focus are housing, work force development, homeless prevention, and emergency services. They also provide access to medical, legal and preventive care services for their clients. Due to the current economic conditions, MainSpring House has doubled the number of beds for homeless men from 40 to 80. They have experienced an increase in working poor needing nightly shelter.
In June, Father Bill’s and MainSpring opened the newly constructed The Residences at 26 Spring Street in Brockton. The Residences provide permanent and transitional housing with supportive services for 32 formerly homeless men and women. Fifteen units are reserved for veterans, through collaboration with the Veterans Administration. Residents rent a one-room efficiency apartment and have access health care, job training and education. The Residences give a “step up” to clients living in the shelter towards independent living. For more information, please see www.fatherbillsmainspring.org.
The Social Justice Fair Trade Table is open during coffee hour with delicious chocolates, coffees, teas, nuts and berries. Profits from the Fair Trade sales fund the Social Justice Reserve Fund which allows the SJC to respond quickly to emergency requests. “Stop by the table and purchase your treats for a good cause!”
The SJC would like to ask you to continue to support the Stoughton-Sharon Food Pantry with your can food donations this church year. Please deposit your donations in the baskets in the second floor coat closet. A SJC committee member will then transport them to the Food Pantry. Thank you!
The Social Justice Committee is holding our planning meeting for the 2010-2011 church year on Tuesday, August 31st, at 7:00 PM at the church. We invite you to join us as we generate ideas and set our priorities for fundraising, addressing social action issues and planning social justice activities. We are looking forward to an exciting year with new leadership from Rev. Robinson who sees Social Justice as one of the four pillars of the church. Further, we welcome input from all church members and friends. If you have comments and suggestions, but will be unable to attend this planning meeting, please send them via email to justicecommittee@uusharon.org. We hope to see you on the 31st!
August 2010
Thank you for your contributions to the “Brown Envelope” offerings this past church year. The offerings received in June were $435.47, and these funds were donated to GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network). The total contributed for the 2009-2010 church year through the “Brown Envelope” offerings received and supplemented with Equal Exchange sales profits was $6,749.25.
The Social Justice Fair Trade Table had another successful year, thanks to the generous support of the church community. We sold over $4,300 worth of delicious chocolates, coffees, teas, nuts and berries, and were thus able to add over $1,000 to our important Social Justice Reserve Fund. This year, we used that fund to accomplish a number of efforts beyond the weekly Brown Envelope program of targeted fundraising: the purchase of new Rainbow flags to announce our welcoming congregation’s ongoing commitment to diversity ($95), to aid our sister UU church in Barnstable after a fire destroyed part of their facility ($750), sponsorship of the Diversity Workshop with Angela Park this spring ($400), and supplements to a number of our Brown Envelope recipients ($178). Quoted from Gare Reid, “All in all, your sweet tooth and caffeine habits have helped us to engage the world and ourselves on matters of social justice, and we look forward to another year of challenges and opportunities for action and growth. See you at the Fair Trade Table this fall!”
The SJC would like to ask you to continue to support the Stoughton-Sharon Food Pantry or your local food pantry during the summer months. Their need for can donations actually increases during the summer months when children no longer have access to meals provided at schools. We will continue to collect can foods at the church during the summer and deliver them to the food pantry. But most local libraries are collection spots as well. Also, David Nelson said to let you know that the Coldwell Banker office across the street from the church has a collection box for the Stoughton-Sharon Food Pantry. Feel free to drop off your donations there as well. Thank you!
OPEN INVITATION! The Social Justice Committee will hold it planning meeting for the 2010-2011 church year on Tuesday, August 31st, at 7:00 PM at the church. We invite you to join us as we generate ideas and set our priorities for fundraising, addressing social action issues and planning social justice activities. We are looking forward to an exciting year with new leadership from Rev. Robinson who sees Social Justice as one of the four pillars of the church. Further, we welcome input from all church members and friends. If you have comments and suggestions, but will be unable to attend this planning meeting, please send them via email to justicecommittee@uusharon.org. We hope to see you on the 31st!
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