Serving Commission Annual Report 2009

The Serving Commission at Grace Lutheran Church oversees projects that serve both the local and world community. These include collections for the Hospitality House and ADFAC, the monthly sales of coffee, tea, chocolate, fruit and nuts to support the Lutheran World Relief Equal Exchange Project, the Angel and Star Tree at Christmas, the Food Pantry, and the Holiday Food Baskets.   It also serves as a liaison for the Boy and Girl Scouts troops located at our church and for the Ecumenical Storehouse. The Commission encourages church members to support community charities with a selection of bi-monthly Love Offerings.

Serving the needs of the community continued in 2009.  It was a difficult year for many and there was a greater need for many of the programs. The Serving Commission would like to thank all members of Grace Lutheran Church for their generous financial response and volunteer support. Special thanks to those who volunteer their time and energy to be project coordinators.  Without you, none of these projects would be possible.

In April, Grace Lutheran supported The Hospitality House at Methodist Medical Center. The Hospitality House's mission is to relieve patients and their families of the financial burden associated with lodging, enabling them to concentrate on the physical and emotional healing. It is totally supported by charitable contributions. The congregation donated numerous supplies including snack foods, teabags and coffee, toothbrushes, hand soap, trash bags, and cleaning & laundry supplies.

The annual collection of ADFAC school supplies by the congregation took place during the month of July. ADFAC then distributed the supplies to low-income families of Anderson County in time for the start of school.   A Love Offering was not collected this year due to an increase in requests from other areas.

Grace Lutheran Church participates in several Lutheran World Relief projects. They include the sale of fairly traded, organically grown, coffee, tea, cocoa, and chocolate bars from Equal Exchange, as well as chocolate bars from SERRV International. All the sales benefit the farmers working in small cooperatives to support their families at a fair wage, and make it possible for the cooperatives to give back to their communities by building schools and medical facilities. No child labor is involved in this or any other Fairly Traded effort. Grace earns only enough profit to pay shipping costs. In addition, we donated $200 of our sales receipts to Lutheran World Hunger. We appreciate the support of the congregation in purchasing these products.

Again this year at Christmas, both the Angel Tree and the Star program were supported by the congregation at Grace.   The Angel Tree provided toys and clothing for 64 children in need from 30 families and the Star program provided 14 elderly persons with personal items and food. This was an increase from last year’s 57 children from 28 families and 8 elderly persons. Recipients were referred to Barbara Storaasli from the former YWCA, Ridgeview, and Anderson County DHS.  Ingrid Busch was the coordinator for both programs again this year.  

The Food Pantry at Grace Lutheran Church is one of several pantries that serve the general Oak Ridge area. Families are asked to come at most once a month and are required not to have visited another food pantry in the week they come to us. The Food Pantry supplies food according to a basic menu, which is supplemented by other foods obtained from the Second Harvest Food Bank. The basic menu would cost about $25, if purchased at a local food store. The pantry purchases food at local stores and at the Second Harvest Food bank. The pantry pays about half price for the food obtained at Second Harvest. Second Harvest is also the agent for USDA food distribution in the Knoxville area. This food is furnished free to food pantries.

After a twelve percent increase in use last year, the Pantry saw a twenty percent increase in use in 2009, to an average of 243 families a month. A summary of the usage for 2009 and 2008 is given in the following table.

FOOD PANTRY SUMMARY BY MONTH – 2009 AND 2008

MONTH	FAMILIES SERVED IN 2008	FAMILIES SERVED IN 2009	INDIVIDUALS SERVED IN 2008	INDIVIDUALS SERVED IN 2009
JANUARY	161	243	406	628
FEBRUARY	184	176	480	437
MARCH	171	222	430	573
APRIL	170	216	440	545
MAY	220	259	561	676
JUNE	185	219	505	572
JULY	179	266	419	729
AUGUST	271	273	762	739
SEPTEMBER	229	267	551	708
OCTOBER	267	338	662	891
NOVEMBER	227	240	748	589
DECEMBER	161	199	364	514
TOTAL	2425	2918	6328	6907
AVERAGE	202	243	527	576

Food was distributed at a cost of $25,295 or $2,108 per month. This represents an increase of twenty five percent from 2008.  Contributions of $28,665.94 were received. These donations were received from members of Grace through the love offering held on the second Sunday of each on month, from other churches, such as Kern Memorial Methodist Church and $1,626 FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program. The pantry also received a onetime only funding of $4,777 through FEMA, as part of the stimulus funds. No money was designated in Grace’s budget for the Food Pantry. A community food drive by the Boy Scouts greatly contributed to the food supplies of the pantry.

A group of volunteers from Grace and Kern Methodist distribute food every Friday from 10 AM until Noon.  A set of volunteers comes from Kern to serve the fifth Friday, which occurs once a quarter. Bill Lever and Judy Joy are coordinators, with Helen Kapral acting as treasurer.  Weekly trips are made to Second Harvest to get food and Bill purchases other food from local stores.  Paul Becher, Rich Kerchner, and Helmut Busch among others helped to unload the trucks from Second Harvest and restock the shelves. Pickup trucks are provided by Bill Lever, Judy Joy and others for the trips to Second Harvest.  Judy, Paul, and Helmut do the heavy lifting, Bill does the paper work, and Helen sees that the bills are paid.

Holiday Food Baskets, at a cost of approximately $6,820, were distributed to families nominated by the former YWCA Women’s Shelter, Ridgeview, DHS, and congregation members. Twenty-four baskets were distributed at Easter at a cost of about $59 each. During both Thanksgiving and Christmas thirty-six families received baskets at a cost of about $75. Most of the foods items were purchased at local stores, but some items were purchased at Second Harvest.  The youth of Grace and others helped to pack the baskets. Adult volunteers helped to distribute the baskets to recipients.  The baskets were funded by church member donations and from Thrivent Financial matching contributions. The coordinators for the Holiday Food Baskets in 2009 were Barbara Storaasli, Janie Hiserote, Phil Stumbo, and Bill Lever.  Helen Kapral kept track of the finances.

The Serving Commission is also the liaison for BSA Troop 224.  Pat McMillan is the church contact.

Ecumenical Storehouse

The Storehouse is a non-profit all-volunteer agency whose mission is to collect and distribute donated household items free of charge to needy families who have been referred to us by a social service agency. Grace Church is a founding member of the Storehouse. Continued strong financial and volunteer support from the congregation along with eleven other local churches has enabled the Storehouse to serve families from Anderson, Roane, Morgan, Scott and Campbell counties. This was only possible because of you, the family of Grace Lutheran Church, who have continued to believe in our mission. This service to the community is so rewarding. Thank you.

Submitted by Lisa Burtis from the contributions of many others.