At First Church we understand that we truly are the body of Christ, and our outreach missions reflect our belief in showing kindness and compassion to all of God’s creation. There are countless ways to get involved in the outreach work of First Church — whether you want to serve hot meals to your neighbors or build houses for those who desperately need them, your hands are needed here! First Church Outreach is involved in helping people who struggle with food insecurity and homelessness, and we are particularly involved in working for equity and social justice.
Outreach Team
Harvest Pack • March 1, 2025, snow date March 8
Harvest Meal Packing Event 2025
Saturday, March 1st from 10 to 1:30. (Snow date March 8) Join your friends and neighbors to pack meals to be sent to those in need. It is an incredible way to generate positive energy, foster pride in working together for the benefit of others and have fun! Come by yourself or with a friend and join a team to pack meals for a few hours. We’ll feed you a pizza lunch for all your hard work. Recommended donation is $10 per family. Use Cash or Venmo for your donation!
Greater Hartford Interfaith Action Alliance (GHIAA)
A broad-based social justice initiative piloted by the Center for Leadership and Justice. GHIAA is comprised of over 40 churches, synagogues, mosques, and meeting houses, creating a diverse organization of lay leaders and clergy from across bounds of race, class, gender identity, religion, and geography. GHIAA builds relational power in local communities to address social justice issues. GHIAA’s current campaigns are focused on the areas of Criminal Justice Reform, Education, Gun Violence, Healthcare, and Housing.
If you have questions, contact Linda Bronstein (lindadiane275@gmail.com) or Terry Schmitt (taschmtt@aol.com) directly. Thank you!
After the GHIAA Campaign Kick-off, now what?
Ten members and friends of First Church participated in the Campaign Kick-off on Nov. 21, and now it’s time to get to work!GHIAA is forming town-by-town Housing Affordability Teams (HATs) to look into what each town needs to do to remove its own barriers to affordable housing. A HAT team is forming in West Hartford, as well as in many other towns. If you are interested in joining a team, contact Linda (lindadiane275@gmail.com) or Terry (terryschmittwh@gmail.com).
A Big Thank You to all of you who contributed in 2024 toward First Church’s commitment to support GHIAA financially. We reached our goal of $2500 in donations (which together with $2500 from the Outreach Team make up our $5000 annual commitment to GHIAA). Not only that, but we surpassed our goal, giving us a few hundred dollars to carry over and use as a head start on our 2025 commitment!
The CT legislative session began on Jan. 8, which means that the next few months will be busy ones. GHIAA will be focusing on affordable housing, and on freeing up funds in the state budget to meet a wide range of human needs. There will be opportunities to express support of or opposition to specific bills, both by contacting our own legislators and by testifying or writing letters to legislative committees. If you’d like to be kept up to date as those opportunities arise, send an email, or talk to Linda or Terry at coffee hour.
Thank you again!
Pre-K for the Little Peanuts Quilt Fundraiser
Linda Dore was the winner of the quilt auctioned off by Jeanne Warner’s foundation “Pre-K for the Little Peanuts” and she graciously donated it to the FCAFYC to display in one of their classrooms. Pictured are Dawne Quinn, Director of the Academy, Linda Dore, and Jeanne Warner.
Judy, Bob, Jeanne and Carol all smiles at the March 2024 Loaves and Fishes prep. Yes Bob has a couple of black eyes; they look worse than they are; he checked out fine, and he didn’t let that stop him from helping on this day.
Loaves and Fishes, a local soup kitchen, provides warm meals and a safe place to eat for Hartford residents. Once a month First Church volunteers work with Loaves and Fishes staff to serve a hot meal. First Church members and friends also regularly donate grocery items for Loaves and Fishes’ “meals-to-go” program.
Communications Team. The Communications team is a branch of the Outreach Ministry, and is charged with spotlighting what goes on here at First Church. We employ many avenues to communicate and market our mission and events to the community and to our membership. In addition to digital messaging we design banners, signs, flyers, newspapers and good old word of mouth!
As the world of social media and publicity evolves, we do our best to evolve with it! Church members who have an interest in marketing are invited to check out the Communications Team!