Starfish Food Pantry
Several times throughout the year we take up collections of food to donate to the Readington Starfish Food Pantry, which distributes food to needy families in the community. In the summer we collect school supplies. At Christmas we adopt families to make sure everyone has a gift to open. In February, 2020 the SuperBowl challenge brought in almost 1,000 canned and non perishable food items. We held several drive by food drives when the church was closed due to CoVid. In 2021 and 2022 community wide clothing drives were held and hundreds of dollars were donated to Starfish from the proceeds of these drives. For more information on Starfish, visit their Facebook page or Readington’s Social Services page.
Family Promise
Family Promise of Hunterdon County ministers to the needs of low-income and homeless families and women by providing temporary housing, meals, and other physical needs through a network of committed congregations throughout the county. Before Covid, we provided dinners several times during the year to guests when they stayed at the nearby Rockaway Reformed Church. We also supply clothes, supplies and food on an as-needed basis. Family Promise now has a dedicated home for families to stay where meals are prepped ahead and dropped off for the family. While they were working on the permanent housing and due to Covid, in 2021 and 2022 families were housed in hotels which was costly. WUMC also donated $500.00 in 2021, and $250.00 in 2022. This was dedicated Missions funds previously raised by car washes, sub sales, and crafts.Here is a listing by years of our giving:
2020-2021
In March of 2020, we were challenged to find new ways to continue our missions. While we didn’t have many inside Sunday services, our congregation still participated in giving. We held many drive-by food donations to benefit Starfish, diaper drives, and clothing drives. We were still able to collect gifts for those less fortunate in our local community for Christmas and stay socially distanced.
August of 2021 we held a car wash that raised funds to benefit our next backyard or home project mission.
2022
This year, as we got back to regular services, we brought back our communion offerings on Sundays. Most of these dedicated funds were donated to UMCOR for assistance in the Ukraine, hurricane relief, and other natural disasters. Approximately $1850.00 was raised for UMCOR this year, as well as our congregation generously donated to other Missions projects throughout the year.2023-2025
To see the full list of all our mission projects in 2023-2024, please click here. For 2025, please click here.In the past we helped out these charitable organizations:
The Maker’s Place
The Maker’s Place is a diaper bank and Hope Center sponsored by United Methodists of Greater New Jersey. The Maker’s Place was launched in July 2018 with a broad vision: to become a resource center that connects neighbors with neighbors in diverse and inclusive community, by responding to the gifts and aspirations of people living in poverty.
In 2021 and 2022, we donated close to 2,000 diapers to Maker’s place and our local Starfish food pantry.
The winter of 2023 diaper drive brought in 2060 diapers for adults and babies that were donated to Readington Social Services (Starfish).
CROP Hunger Walk
CROP stands for “Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty.” CROP Hunger walks are community-wide events sponsored by Church World Service and organized by local volunteers to raise funds to end hunger.Mission Trips
Members of the church have gone on several mission trips to help those in need. A team of volunteers had made several trips to New Orleans to help Hurricane Katrina victims as part of the St. Bernard Project. The volunteers lent their construction skills to build and repair homes that will house the area homeless. Volunteers had also made several trips to West Virginia to work with Wellspring of Greenbrier County to help needy families improve their homes, including electrical work and the building of wheelchair ramps. A team of youth and adult volunteers had made several trips to Sussex County, NJ, through the Christian Outreach Project to help needy families with home repairs. The summer of 2021 we worked close to home on a backyard project for someone in our local community.Missions Festival/Alternate Christmas Giving
In October 2016 and 2017 over $7,500.00 was raised for the following groups during a missions festival: Christian Outreach Project (COP), AICF, Church World Service, CUMAC, Family Promise, Good News Home for Women, Heifer, Market Street Mission, Ramabai Mukti, Red Bird, UMCOR, Wellspring, and Servv. Many of these non-profits take donations directly on their websites. Servv has great handmade gift ideas you can order for yourself, or loved ones.
