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Food

SPOTLIGHT: University City United Methodist Church

September 4, 2019 By chris

University City United Methodist Church in Charlotte has been busy over the past few months. Inspired by a study of the text Welcome to Dinner, Church by Verlon Fosner, members of the congregation began […]

SPOTLIGHT: University City United Methodist Church

September 4, 2019 by chris

University City United Methodist Church in Charlotte has been busy over the past few months. Inspired by a study of the text Welcome to Dinner, Church by Verlon Fosner, members of the congregation began dreaming up ideas for a church garden in January of this year. They formed a sub-committee, and after meetings with interested members made it clear that the church garden could become a reality, they got to planning. Planting started in April. 

From May to September, weekly work-days were hosted in the garden space. Members of the church and community gathered on Wednesday evenings to plant, weed, and participate in a devotional time. The group used the book, The Green Bible Devotional, to connect their work in the garden with the environmental themes of their faith. Garden committee leader, Sabrina Do Rosario, says that the mission of the garden was always to build and experience community. Reflecting on the weekly multigenerational gatherings, Sabrina says that this has been a success!

Throughout the summer, the fruits of the garden were harvested for various purposes. The church hosted a BLT fellowship meal in which congregation and community members enjoyed tomatoes from their own garden. A “Blessing Table” was then installed in the foyer of the sanctuary. Every week, the table is filled with the harvest of the garden. Congregation and community members are invited to take what they need. Whatever is leftover is donated to a local food pantry. 

As the seasons change, there are many more plans for the garden. The church hopes to host a pumpkin patch in October. Additionally, a new environmental study will begin this month. Church members will start meeting on September 11th to read through the text, Climate Justice: A Call to Hope and Action. Book study members will meet in both the community garden discussed above, the congregation’s celebration garden, and a wooded area behind the sanctuary where “worship in the woods” is held each Sunday morning at 8:45am. That’s right. In addition to two gardens on church property, this community holds a weekly worship service in the forest behind their building.

University City United Methodist Church is bringing their faith to life by getting their hands dirty, building community, and learning about the need for climate justice. How are you creatively engaging faith and acting on climate change?


To submit your congregational story for a spotlight, email programs@ncipl.org. 

Filed Under: Food, Success Stories, Uncategorized

Episcopal Church of the Nativity, Raleigh

March 26, 2013 By chris

Episcopal Church of the Nativity, Raleigh 8849 Ray Rd. Raleigh, NC 27613 Contact: Carl Sigel, cwsigel@aol.com The Environmental Stewardship group at Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Raleigh has a mission […]

Episcopal Church of the Nativity, Raleigh

March 26, 2013 by chris

Episcopal Church of the Nativity, Raleigh
Episcopal Church of the Nativity, Raleigh

Episcopal Church of the Nativity, Raleigh
8849 Ray Rd. Raleigh, NC 27613
Contact: Carl Sigel, cwsigel@aol.com

The Environmental Stewardship group at Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Raleigh has a mission to bring Creation Care from the periphery of our parish life to a more central position.  This objective is in harmony with The Episcopal House of Bishops Pastoral Teaching on the environment issued in September 2011 which states we have an ecological crisis, and “Christians cannot be indifferent to global warming, pollution, natural resource depletion, species extinctions, and habitat destruction, all of which threaten life on our planet.”

Many of the Bishop’s recommendations for actions by parishes and individuals had already been introduced in early 2011 at Nativity. During the weekend of February 18 to 20, Nativity and NCIPL cosponsored an Earth Care weekend. On Friday evening, Dr. Kathy Shea spoke about climate change and health, on Sunday    morning, Dr. Carl Sigel during the adult education hour, addressed ways to incorporate ecological thinking into worship, education, and institutional life. The worship service that morning included ecological liturgy, hymns and sermon. In April 2011, Nativity started a community garden, which will be expanded in 2012. On several occasions during the summer, fresh produce from the garden was donated to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. To provide grounding for the garden efforts, a four week program based on the Interfaith Power & Light Cool Harvest was presented in June.

More recently, Nativity participated in Interfaith Power & Light’s national Preach-In on Climate Change on February 12, 2012. Services  were led by the Rector Rev. Stephanie Allen with the participation of Rev. Jerry Cappel, Associate for Justice Ministries, St. Matthews Episcopal Church, Louisville, Kentucky, Coordinator of Environmental Ministries for Province IV of the Episcopal Church and President Kentucky IPL. Rev. Cappel also led an interactive Adult Formation session on how Christians should think about climate change. In the afternoon, Rev. Cappel visited Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, participating in an adult forum and the evening worship service. During Lent 2012, for Adult    Formation, Nativity will use a five part Anglican Bible Study, called, “And it was good” http://www.aco.org/ministry/theological/bible/lent.cfm.

At a time when powerful forces in government, business, and the media divert our attention from an environmental crisis that threatens human civilization and all life on Earth as we know it, as people of faith, we need to be mindful of and thankful for our religious leaders, who look to both faith and science to develop a worldview based on reality and provide clear guideposts for us to take action.

-Carl Sigel, Chair of Nativity’s  Environmental Committee

Filed Under: Food, Success Stories Tagged With: food

Central United Methodist Church, Charlotte

March 26, 2013 By chris

6030 Albemarle Road | Charlotte, NC 28212 Contact: Karen Carpenter, thecarps3@yahoo.com In 2011, Central United Methodist Church (CUMC) Charlotte was one of four churches in the nation to win Interfaith […]

Central United Methodist Church, Charlotte

March 26, 2013 by chris

Central United Methodist Charlotte garden
Central United Methodist Church garden


6030 Albemarle Road | Charlotte, NC 28212
Contact: Karen Carpenter, thecarps3@yahoo.com

In 2011, Central United Methodist Church (CUMC) Charlotte was one of four churches in the nation to win Interfaith Power & Light’s “Cool    Congregations Challenge,” awarding effort by faith-based  congregations to address global warming at the grass-roots level. The $1,000 award recognized Central in the category of   sustainable grounds and water conservation.

Demonstrating ways to reduce its carbon footprint and inspire its members and others in the community, Central started a community garden last spring with 24 plots, including some raised beds. To preserve water and enrich soil, volunteers tilled in 48 cubic yards of compost made from county recycled yard waste with additional dirt removed from construction sites. They created garden paths from mulch recycled from tree trimmers, and converted recycled, neutralized barrels into cisterns for irrigation. They established a compost pile to winterize the garden and prepare for Spring. This year’s harvest provided locally grown produce to congregants,  neighborhood gardeners, and the church’s food pantry, which serves 15 families from Albemarle Road Elementary School, a local  high-poverty, high-English as a Second Language elementary with whom Central partners.

Three other winners were selected from New Mexico, Connecticut and Indiana for energy efficiency, renewable energy and inspiring congregants to lower energy use at home.

-Lucille Howard, CUMC member

Filed Under: Food, Success Stories Tagged With: food

Coley Springs Missionary Baptist Church, Warrenton

March 26, 2013 By chris

Coley Springs Missionary Baptist Church 224 Parktown Road, Warrenton, NC 27589 Contact: Rev. Bill Kearney, handsincorporated@earthlink.net Coley Springs Missionary Baptist Church is located in Warren County, a Tier 1 county […]

Coley Springs Missionary Baptist Church, Warrenton

March 26, 2013 by chris

Coley Springs Missionary Bapist Church, Warrenton
Coley Springs Missionary Bapist Church, Warrenton

Coley Springs Missionary Baptist Church
224 Parktown Road, Warrenton, NC 27589
Contact: Rev. Bill Kearney, handsincorporated@earthlink.net

Coley Springs Missionary Baptist Church is located in Warren County, a Tier 1 county with high rates of chronic disease. In partnership with Dr. Molly De Marco of the UNC- Chapel Hill Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Coley Springs Missionary Baptist Church has for over five years planned and implemented health promotion programs to improve the health of the church,  the greater Warren County community, and the climate.  Through their unique community-based participatory research partnership the “Harvest of Hope Garden Project” was developed (2010-2011) to examine the impact of participating in a community garden project led by 25 adults and 25 youth; the result—an inspiring Sacred Foodscape.

The partnership has since collaborated with three more rural Black churches through the United Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church Association to develop and implement a two year (2010-2012) gardening project “Faith, Farming, and the Future Youth Mentoring Project” to increase access to good food, encourage increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, and impart job readiness skills to 60 youth in Warren County.

The Faith, Farming, and the Future project was a joint research project between Coley Springs, Cooks Chapel, Jerusalem Baptist Church, and Union Grove Baptist Church and the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. The project recruited 60 youth participants who were paid up to 5 hours per week at $8.00 per hour to explore the resources and challenges in their food systems and then develop a project to address those issues.  The youth were divided into research teams   led and mentored by community leaders under the direction of a field coordinator.  The study sought to look at how this process affected knowledge and attitudes about farming, gardening, cooking, consumption of fruits and vegetables, participants health, and empowerment.

Some of the challenges identified and projects developed by the research teams were: (1) Lack of access to affordable fresh fruits and vegetables -> grew church gardens, shared produce with church and community members, and sold locally grown vegetables at a produce market; (2) Unhealthy food choices at church events -> developed 20 health ministry toolkits for local churches; and (3) Unhealthy food choices at local schools ->raised money and solicited seeds and supplies to support a vegetable garden at Warren County High School, and created a healthy lunch and snack choices brochure for students at the elementary schools.

The Harvest of Hope and the Faith, Farming, and the Future project builds on community assets/strengths (land, youth, farmers with experience and equipment) and is a model project for other resource challenged rural communities across the state.

We have seen that adults and youth know more about gardening and are more willing to try fruits and vegetables, which could contribute to them consuming more.   Participants in the program ate more fruits and vegetables and we saw some weight loss.

-Written by Rev. Bill Kearney  (handsincorporated@earthlink.net)

Filed Under: Food, Slideshow Featured, Success Stories

Saint Francis of Assisi, Raleigh

March 26, 2013 By chris

Saint Francis of Assisi, Raleigh 11401 Leesville Rd  Raleigh, NC 27613 Contact: Bill Rhoades, wrhodes1@mac.com We are a Franciscan community in North Raleigh that is inspired by our patron, St. Francis, […]

Saint Francis of Assisi, Raleigh

March 26, 2013 by chris

St. Francis of Assisi, Raleigh
St. Francis of Assisi, Raleigh

Saint Francis of Assisi, Raleigh
11401 Leesville Rd  Raleigh, NC 27613
Contact: Bill Rhoades, wrhodes1@mac.com

We are a Franciscan community in North Raleigh that is inspired by our patron, St. Francis, who lived simply and had a special connection with all of creation.  About three years ago, our community re-invigorated our efforts to become a more sustainable living community through starting a new ministry, Franciscan Care of Creation (FCC).  As our community proceeded with plans to build additional buildings, the FCC participated with the Building Committee to incorporate many energy-saving measures.  As a result an expanded pre-school, a new activity/community center, and a new chapel all received a gold LEED building certification.  In addition, our new Siena Life-long Learning Center received a silver certification.  These were designed with sustainable principles in mind.

The FCC has been invited to participate on other parish committees to provide our perspective in their decisions. Based on a recent energy audit, the parish achieved 20% improvement in energy efficiency.  This has resulted in lower power usage and the resulting dollar savings.   In recent years, we have been replacing our oldest HVAC units as funds can be made available.  This summer we plan to replace our two oldest (1989) HVAC units.  The new buildings utilize much natural lighting.   For our existing buildings we are transitioning to green lighting systems with CFLs and LEDs.

Our community has always had a special concern for those less fortunate than ourselves.  Considering the needs of the hungry, we have started an organic community garden.  This consists of multiple raised beds that are tended by volunteers.  Although the garden is less than two years old, it has delivered around 750 pounds of food to the needy. In this effort we have received help from other faith congregations as well as NC State. The garden also provides opportunities for children and families to connect to the Earth and learn about the benefits of locally grown, organic produce.

The ministry has had water cleanup activities at Falls Lake and at rivers and streams in Wake and Durham counties, often in partnership with other organizations.  We have provided information after services on sustainable living, have held movie nights and had speakers. We will be expanding our garden, having more educational programs, and reaching out to others as our resources allow.

–Franciscan Care of Creation Team

Filed Under: Food, Success Stories Tagged With: food

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