Local hope and assistance through ELCA Hunger Grants
by Dorothy Sorrell
The ELCA Domestic Hunger Program has awarded grants to five congregations and organizations in the ELCA Metro D.C. Synod.
- Gracing Spaces Ministry of Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Virginia was able to provide furniture, household items, and children’s clothing to more than 500 families as they moved from homelessness in Fairfax County during 2017.
- St. Luke Lutheran Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, works with 15 community agencies to provide food, and nutrition, and exercise information to people in Montgomery County.
- The Action in Community Through Service (ACTS) Hunger Prevention Center serves those in need of immediate access to food, primarily the working poor and seniors on fixed incomes. St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Lake Ridge, Virginia, is very active with this service provider to the greater Prince William area.
- Good Shepherd Housing Foundation, founded by members of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Woodbridge, Virginia, provides 15 affordable rental housing units in Prince William County.
- Washington Interfaith Network (WIN), in which several D.C. congregations are active including First Trinity Lutheran Church, Luther Place Memorial, and Lutheran Church of the Reformation, works to maintain and expand subsidized affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families in the District of Columbia.
All of these efforts offer hope and assistance to thousands of people who experience poverty and hunger in the United States.
ELCA World Hunger Domestic Hunger Grants fund projects in advocacy, community development, community-based organizing and relief that strengthen the foundations of communities affected by hunger and poverty.
Our guest blogger, Dorothy Sorrell, is Synod Hunger Coordinator.