“Colesville UMC is “in the community, serving our community”

The Outreach & Missions Team will be launching our new CUMC Food Pantry Distribution via drive thru only beginning May 16th, 2024 and there after every 3rd Thursday of each month.

We will continue to support our school based programs and in addition, we will be providing bags of food to those in need within our community.

Listed below are our on-going projects we actively accomplished during 2023 in service to our community.

Interfaith Works Women’s Shelter located in Rockville, MD:  The Colesville UMC family stepped up in its usual manner to reach out to our neighbors in the community. Under the leadership of the Outreach and Missions (O&M) ministry of the church, we supplied dinners to the Interfaith Works Women’s Shelter for four nights in October 2023 to feed 35 ladies each day. Among the Ministries and individuals preparing and/or supplying the dinners were the Women of Faith, the Choir, the Greeters, Faith Walkers Bible Study group, the Outreach and Missions ministry, and Paulette and John Wright. The Sunday School classes also participated in this year’s program by preparing delicious breakfast sandwiches, which were given to the ladies who went out to work.

Additional food items and supplies were also delivered to the center. This included coffee, coffee creamer, bottled water, juices, canned tuna and chicken, kitchen towels, facial tissues, napkins, Lysol wipes, and shelf stable snacks.

The Colesville UMC Hungry Neighbors Program is our year-round program to provide bags of non-perishable groceries to people in the community. The Church office regularly responds to emergency requests with food and/or Giant gift cards.

Hungry Neighbors Thanksgiving: Through partnerships with local schools (Westover Elementary, Kemp Mill Elementary and Paint Branch Hight School), Colesville UMC provided 54 Thanksgiving meals (baskets) to students and their families. The baskets consisted of donated non-perishable food, turkeys, chickens, and $25 Giant gift cards. We had an emergency request to help two families who had experienced recent hardships and needed our help with meals. Fortunately, we were able to solicit the help from residents in our community who were able to donate the additional baskets.

Hungry Neighbors Christmas: We provided 15 families with bags of non-perishable groceries, turkeys and a $25 gift card. Various groups in the church have donated gift cards to the Hungry Neighbors Program.

Christmas Shoebox Toy Drive/Project Operation Christmas Child (OCC):
During Christmas 2023, the O&M team along with the help of financial donations from the Colesville UMC congregation, shoeboxes were filled with toys, clothing, outfits, shoes and stuffed animals for children ages 2-14 who live overseas in areas that are impoverished and may not know about Christ. Last year, we included bookmarkers with the name of our church and its logo with a short bible verse.

C4 Clothes Closet: Also known as the Colesville Council of Community Congregations, the C4 was started in the late 60s in our Anderson Hall. It is now housed in the old Colesville Elementary School on New Hampshire Avenue. One of our O&M committee members, Marilyn Boerum, has been supporting them for approx. 40 years and is our church representative. Last year, the C4 served about 60 families per month with clothing, linens and other household items. These families are referred to us by social workers and pastors according to their needs. No money is exchanged, and they can “shop” with C4 every other month. There is also a baby closet which has served about 40 families with all sorts of clothing and baby supplies. In August, they had their annual school supply drive and gave out about 600 backpacks filled with requested items from Montgomery County Public Schools. Colesville UMC also support the C4 Christmas toy drive that serves 1200 children. C4 representatives work with several other congregations and have been very successful with their endeavors.

House of Divine Guidance/Women and Children who are temporarily homeless: The church provides water and meals for this home at least once each winter for three to five families. When the shelter was overloaded with families, Colesville UMC also provided temporary housing in our building.

Winter coat drive: Coats, hats and gloves are donated and given to the schools with which Colesville partners – Westover ES, Kemp Mill ES, Fairland ES, Paint Branch HS.