Mission and Social Concerns Team 2015 Committee Members: Edie Chapman and John Cook, Co-chairs, Janet Barager, Lou Callerame, Sally Chase, Fred Coffman, Lois Daniels, Ruth Dantz and Jan Taylor Our team was very active this year and we met each month to support all our projects. Western Presbyterian Church has a long tradition of service and we are challenged to continue this active service to our neighbors both near and far. Ongoing local projects: We have continued to support the Food Pantry, Home Meal Service, Victim Resource Center, and the Clothing Cupboard. We sponsored grants through the Geneva Presbytery that resulted in an additional $4,000 for the Victim Resource Center, $2,000 for the Food Pantry and $1,500 for the Home Meal Service. One of our members committed herself to buying 1,000 boxes of cereal for the Food Pantry in a 12 month period. As a result of her commitment, the Mission Team has challenged the WPC community to match her goal during the next 12 months. Holiday outreach: We again sent greeting cards and gift cards to one of the local ARC homes for Christmas. We also sent Valentine cookie boxes to our college students. Global Mission: We continued to support the Qholaqhoe Mountain Connections and featured this mission to Lesotho at our Mission Sunday worship in September. We also challenged our congregation to increase our One Great Hour of Sharing to $1,000 and actually received $1,200. We have recently started to collect empty medicine bottles to help the clinics in Malawi dispense medication efficiently to their patients and have gotten a very positive response. We aided the Sunday School with postage funds for two of their mission projects; disaster relief packages and school supply packages. New Projects: (1) Summer Lunch Program: We were pleased to partner with the Palmyra Community Library, Pal-Mac Central Schools, the Rotary and Lions Clubs to provide free lunches to children up to age 19.  Our willingness to organize the volunteers for this free program made it possible to serve 300 meals during 5 weeks of the summer. (2) Weekend Wellness Program: We have committed our volunteers to purchasing, packing and delivering bags of food to the primary and middle schools to provide extra food to needy students over the weekend. We are currently preparing 44 bags for the Primary School and 26 bags for the Middle School. This number will grow as the High School is added. The Intermediate School’s program is administered independently by donations and a family that packs the meals. This Weekend Wellness was suspended during the 2014-2015 school year because the Primary School did not have space to store the food or the staff to administer it. Thanks to the Property Team, we have set up a storage and work room in the old kitchen. Thanks to the Mission Team we have 4 teams of shoppers and packers. We had some seed money from previous donations but will need to pursue additional donations to complete the current school year and be ready to start up again next September. (3) The Good Neighbor Fund: Following Rev. Nancy’s retirement the Good Neighbor Fund was suspended for three months while the Mission Team worked to reorganize this long-time benevolent program. In October with the Mission Team oversight, a team of five lay volunteers representing 3 local churches were able to start interviewing potential recipients for the Good Neighbor Fund. We have raised approximately $6,000 including $1,550.from the Advent Concert offering. We have distributed approximately $4,000 to 11 adults and 10 children in need.  We expect that our current organization will be sustainable. (4) Palmyra Community Library Snack Program: At the request of the Palmyra Community Library, the Mission Team has agreed to provide snacks for their Monday & Thursday snack program. Many hungry children visit the library after school. The Circle IV is also supporting this outreach.   We are grateful for the generous participation of the congregation and the co-operation of many community organizations and churches. We’re looking forward to working together to continue the mission work of the Western Presbyterian Church.