The produce keeps rolling in!

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Church Community Services, Fair Donations to Food Pantry, Farm Donations, Farming, Fellowship, Food, Gardens, Helping Others, Volunteering

Please spread the word that Church Community Gardens is always looking for volunteers for their gardens. My husband and I have been working at the Goshen Garden on Monday nights and the people are so friendly. It is a great way to make new friends and although I admit to feeling sore sometimes afterwards, I don’t mind because the conversation and fellowship are so fulfilling:

Goshen Garden: 14723 CR 36, Goshen. Mondays @ 5:30pm. Coordinator: Jeremy Shue: jeremyshue@gmail.com. 574-536-2010

Bullard Garden: 22104 CR 14, Elkhart. Tuesdays @ 5:30pm. Coordinator: Kurt Bullard: Kurtbullard4444@gmail.com. 574-298-9059

CCS Garden: 902 Thomas St, Elkhart. Wed & Thurs @ 8:00am. Coordinator: Katie Jantzen: mailto:Kurtbullard4444@gmail.com. 574-295-3673 ext 122

Northwest Goshen: 538 S. Indiana Ave, Goshen. Wednesdays @ 5:30pm. Coordinator: Andrea Milne andreajillmilne@gmail.com.574-400-5858

Heart’s Desire Garden: 3030 Old US 20, Elkhart. Thursdays @ 5:30pm. Coordinator: Dave Hochstetler Dhhooch@aol.com. 574-349-4905

Church Community Services News

It’s fair week, and we’re pleased to report that the auction and tractor rides the Fair Board organized to benefit Seed to Feed brought in $1,620 dollars!  Thank you!

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Julie Miers, Family Nutrition Program Assistant, was at the pantry on Tuesday to provide samples of simple recipes, and this week she spent much of her time educating interested clients about basic nutrition.  Here she is speaking to a group of women about healthy meal planning.

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Here they are!  The first Seed to Feed tomatoes of the season!  These came from the Goshen garden on Monday.

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The CCS garden also had a few tomatoes ripe, as well as lots of yellow squash, patty pan squash, eggplants, yellow beans, purple beans, collards, kale, chard, hot peppers, and sweet peppers!

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Adding this to the zucchini and cucumbers from the River Oaks garden and the zucchini from the Heart’s Desire garden, we’ve really got a…

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CHECK OUT: Church Community Service’s New Food Pantry

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Church, Church Community Service, Civic Engagement, Civic Service, Community Service, Elkhart County, Elkhart County Business Donations, Elkhart County Indiana, Food, Food bank, Friends, Good Deeds, Goshen Indiana, Helping, Helping Friends, Helping Hand, Labor of Love, Michiana Tea Party Coalition, Neighbors, Volunteering, We the People 912

Labor of Love, which included businesses from St. Joseph and Elkhart counties, as well as “We the People” 912 and  the Michiana Tea Party Coalition distributed 80 bins and were among the first contributors to the new pantry.

More and more Elkhart County families are struggling on a daily basis to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. It isn’t just the unemployed either. Parents are working multiple jobs and skipping meals just so they can make sure their children are fed.  They have tough decisions to make every day: whether to fill up the car or put food on the table; whether to pay the utilities or put food on the table; whether to pay the rent or put food on the table. All it takes is one illness, one dead car battery or one rent hike and they can no longer take care of their family without help.

For those without family or friends nearby, Church Community Services provides hope , in the form of food and education and finanacial assistance to families going through hard times in Elkhart County.  When families are living in poverty, they have to do without a lot of things – food should not be one of them.

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012 was a huge day for Church Community Services.

It was the grand opening of Church Community Services’ long awaited renovated food pantry and warehouse.  Church Community Services has been working towards making this transition for 4 years.  The new building will give them the resources, space, and opportunity to better serve needs in our growing community.  It will allow them to store and distribute more food. It  will be cleaner and more welcoming, and will give space to be more volunteer- and client- friendly. They will also be able to put more focus on education, such as providing handy recipes and nutritional facts.

The new pantry is 1,225 sq. ft. compared to the former 494 sq. ft.  The new warehouse is 2,910 sq. ft. compared to the current 1,680 sq. ft.  There is also a 864 sq. ft. welcome center complete with a children’s area, and a prayer room for anyone who feels a need to pray. Lots of love and labor was put into this project, and IT SHOWS!

This nutrician video, full of advice on meal planning, preparation and nutrition runs 24/7 in the waiting room.

Amazing things happen when we are given the privilege of being the channels of the Holy Spirit’s prayer. Church Community Service’s new pantry facility includes a chapel to assist client’s needs.

Here is part of the children’s play area where volunteers watch the children while their parents shop at the pantry.

The ‘Seed to Feed’ vegetables look so good! Fresh garden vegetables are ALWAYS so appreciated.

Mary Kneller, Food Director for Church Community Services, generously used up some of her very valuable time to show me the new facilities. It was a real pleasure.

Elkhart Citizen proud to help his Elkhart County neighbors

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Appreciation, Church Community Serices, Civic Engagement, Civic Service, Community, Community Engagement, Dave Hochstetler, Donation, Elkhart County, Elkhart County Indiana, Feed, Food bank, Food Pantry, Franklin Citgo, Fresh Garden Vegetables, Garden Crops, Generosity, Grateful, Green Beans, Harvest, Harvests, Helping Neighbors, Mr. Singh, Need, Neighbors, Ron Robinson, Seed to Feed, Tomatoes, Volunteering

“This a testament to the reach of hunger and the plight of people in need. What an excellent expression of Elkhart…. ” said Rob Robinson, executive director of Church Community Services in response to Mr. Singh of Franklin’s Citgo’s generous donation.

“Elkhart as been good to me and my family. I want to give something back to this community.” Mr. Singh, owner of Franklin’s Citgo, said his generous gift to Elkhart families in need was  his way of giving back to Elkhart County.

Thank you, Mr. Singh, for the financial gift you brought to us from your business. You’re helping us extend hope to lots of your neighbors. What a pleasure to meet you,” Rod Roberson, executive director of Church Community Services, is most appreciative of the support Church Community Services has received from businesses like Mr. Singhs and from much of the Elkhart Community.

The results of some of ‘Seed to Feed’s” first harvest. I can hardly believe the summer and food picking season is almost over.

Church Community Service’s Weekly ‘Seed to Feed’ Update…

Hi Everyone,
As summer is coming to a close, so will our gardens. But, we still have
some good harvests left to pick. We will go back to our regular schedule:
the Bullard Garden on CR17 will be picked on Monday, Sept 10th at 6:00 p.m.
This will probably be about our last picking. We might have one more on the
17th of Sept, but we will let you know.

The Goshen Garden on CR 36 will be picked on Tuesday, Sept 11, at
6:00 p.m. and we should have a “stellar” harvest of tomatoes and peppers. The
green beans are just about finished, but we still might get some this next
week.

The potato field will be tentatively be ready to pick up next Friday,
Sept.14. The field will be “turned” and then we have a 24 hr window to
pick up the potatoes before they turn green which is not good. We will need
about 50 volunteers with 5 gal buckets to pick them up and load them into
the containers that will then be loaded onto the semi. Date and details to
follow next early next week.

And finally, I’d like to thank the 7th grade class of St. Thomas School
for their wonderful support of the Seed to Feed program. They came to CCS
yesterday along with their teachers and mothers, took a tour of CCS to see
what happens on a daily basis at the Food Bank and then came to the Bullard
Garden to pick beans. The students, 50 in total, along with their teachers
and mothers all got down in the dirt and picked 430 lbs of green beans in
2 hrs. It was a good learning experience for the kids and what a wonderful
blessing for the Food Bank and the people they serve. Thank You kids,
teachers and mothers for your wonderful support!!!
Have a great weekend and we’ll see you at the gardens as we close out
the harvests over the next few weeks, and don’t forget the potato field.
Details will follow next week.

Blessings
Dave Hochstetler
Coordinator of the ‘Feed to Seed’ Program

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‘Strong Woman’ from Soup of Success…because we need to hear MORE good news

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Challenge, Church Community Services, Civic Engagement, Community, Community Service, Constitution, Education, Education Empowers, Elkhart County, Elkhart County Indiana, Ensuring Success, Family Fun, Food, Food Pantry, Freedom, Goshen, Indiana, Life Skills, Need, Soup of Success, Volunteer, Volunteering, Women, Work

Need some inspiration?

WEEKLY ‘SEED TO FEED’ UPDATE…IT IS ALL GOOD!

Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2012 7:45 AM
Subject: Seed to Feed Weekly Update

Hi Everyone,

This past week we had two great harvests at both of our gardens. There
were 29 volunteers who showed up at the Bullard Garden on Monday and 25
volunteers at the Goshen Garden on Tuesday. Thank You all.

We are moving the time of the Bullard Garden picking to 6:00 p.m. We are moving the time of the Bullard Garden picking on Monday evenings. We still need 30 volunteers to pick green beans and sweet corn. Although we will pick on Monday evenings, if anyone wants to pull weeds between the rows, please do so at your own time schedule. If more weeds are pulled,that means more beans get picked. The Bullard Garden is
directly across from Sorg Jewelers, C.R. 17. With 30 volunteers, weeds pulled and fast pickers, we could pick a 1000# of green beans in 3 hrs—-we have lots of beans!!!!!

The Goshen Garden has tons of green tomatoes that should be ready
soon. We will pick every Tuesday at 6:00pm and it is located at 14723
C.R. 36. Last week with 25 volunteers, we picked 11 boxes of beans, tomatoes
and peppers in 1 1/2 hours.

This was a great week and thanks to ALL the volunteers that came and
helped pick. See you Monday and Tuesday at the gardens.

Blessings
Dave Hochstetler

‘Seed to Feed’ has yielded 510 pounds of food so far this summer! More volunteers needed!

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Community, Community Service, Food, Food Pantries, Food security, Garden, Goshen, Green bean, Harvest, Home, Home-Grown, Potatoes, Sweet corn, Tomatoes, Tuesday, Vegetables, Volunteer, Volunteering

Posted on August 10, 2012 by churchcommunityservices

Yield from the Goshen farm.

Beautiful produce from our beautiful Seed to Feed acre in Goshen.  Our clients are so happy!

Fresh vegetables for Elkhart Counties food pantries.

Fresh air, exercise, good honest dirt, and service that helps sustains CCS’s food supply: From now till the end of harvest season, Seed to Feed will need at least 15 volunteers 2 days a week. We will pick the green beans and sweet corn at the Bullard Garden every Monday at 9:00am. It is located on C.R.17 and Middlebury St, directly across from Sorg Jewelers on the west side of C.R.17.

The Fresh Produce Garden in Goshen will be picked every Tuesday at 7:00pm. It is located at 14723 CR36. It is just east of CR33 about 1/8 of a mile on the north side of CR36. The gardens are really starting to produce nice yields each week and should until the end of the season. If you can help, please contact Church Community Services either by email (dhhooch@aol.com) or phone (574-349-4905).

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COMMUNITY SERVICE–ONE PERSON can make a DIFFERENCE to SO MANY!

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Activism, Altruistic, Amish, Caring, Community, Community Service, Compassionate, Family, Foster care, Foster Children, Fostering Handicapped Children, Generous, Giving, Good Heart, Mennonite, Nappanee Indiana, United States, Unselfish, Volunteering

“I would like to get more involved in my community, but I do not have time.”

“I’m just too busy with life to volunteer.”

“Life is too hectic for me to make a commitment to volunteering.

How often do we hear those words? I used to say them. Then I met Freeda Helmuth.

Monday through Friday, 93-year-old Freeda (Schwietert) Helmuth babysat for her two-year-old, 4-year-old and her 6-year-old great-grandchildren. She also gardened, kept house and made quilts. The last time I talked to Freeda she had made grape jelly and grape juice that day from her homegrown grapes. She also gave me her recipe for a cucumber and onion mix. Freeda ALWAYS had time to give.

My friend, Freeda Helmuth.

An active member of Salem Mennonite Church, Nappanee, Freeda was involved with the Nappanee Missionary Church’s Sewing Circle and attended Nappanee Care Givers. But, Freeda’s “giving” wasn’t limited to church or missionary service work.

In 1936 Freeda married Eli and by 1959, they had eight children. Then they further expanded their family by taking in foster children needing a home. Over the next 25 years Freeda and Eli took in 46 children including those with handicaps and serious illnesses.

“Several children came that were so undernourished,” Freeda told me, “one girl was hit on the head by her daddy and was blind and paralyzed because of it. She had surgery on her head and was able to see and walk again. She was soon adopted after that.

“It’s hard to give up children in foster care. They never left without tears and a prayer, knowing that God would take care of them wherever they are.

“After 25 years we quit foster care. Five years later they wanted us to start up again, but in the meantime, friends and neighbors had started bringing in their babies and I started daycare. I did not realize it would last until now, over 20 years later.

“I just thank God for my health so I can continue to have the children since it helps pass the time and the days are not so long.”

In 1981, Freeda and Eli traveled to Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and Denmark. In 1987 they took a 6 week trip to Alaska. They went up to see the pipeline. While in Fairbanks, they saw an Eskimo lady sweeping the sidewalks.

Freeda grew up in North Dakota during a time of dust storms and the depression. She was the fifth child from a family of eleven. Her nearest neighbors were a mile away. This is a picture of the farm where she lived.

She said, “Are you what we call Amish?” She told Freeda and Eli that she had read about the Amish and that there were just a few left. Freeda told her there were Amish in almost every state in the United States.

Says Freeda, “She had the Shaker people in mind. There are just a few of them left.”

In 1990, when Eli was 80 years old, he and Freeda went to Paraguay, South America for two weeks for a wedding. In 1993, Eli had flu symptoms and a pain in his side.

Eli’s first horse and buggy.

Only it wasn’t the flu. Eli had had an abdominal aneurysm. Freeda and Eli had been married 57 years when he died. Together they had bought and paid for their farm. They had traveled around the world. They had raised 8 children and fostered 46. In addition, Freeda has 20 grandchildren and 24 greatgrandchildren.

“We had a good life,” said Freeda, “It was a busy one, I’m still busy and I have no regrets. The Lord has been good to me and for that I am grateful and truly at peace.”

Freeda Helmuth, 95, died Thursday at 3:30 p.m., March 3, 2011 at IU Health Goshen Hospital. Today, I believe that Freeda is caring for children. She is also encouraging each and every one of us to do ALL that we can to help those less fortunate.

I am grateful to have met Freeda Helmuth and blessed that she shared her story and friendship with me.

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Saturday night: ‘Elkhart Memorial grad to hold concert, food drive to benefit Church Community Services’

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Caring, Church Community Services, Civic Engagement, Civic Service, Community Activism, Community Service, David Phelps, Elkhart County Indiana, Food bank, Friends, Helping, Josh Groban, Neighbors, Paxton Manly, Saturday, Volunteer, Volunteering

The county fair may wind down this weekend, but the music scene won’t, and all a fantastic show will cost you is a canned good.

A recent Memorial High School graduate, Paxton Manly will perform in his third annual concert/food drive to benefit Church Community Services (CCS) Saturday, July 28 at 7:00 p.m. The concert will be at the First Baptist Church, 53953 C.R. 17, Bristol (on the edge of Elkhart in the Six Span Bridge area). Manly offers a night of live music entertainment covering artists including Josh Groban, Michael Buble, Coldplay, U2, The Beatles, David Phelps, the Gaith Vocal Band and many more.

Your admission price? A non-perishable food item or monetary donation to CCS.

An interview of the Food Services Director, Mary Kneller, about the services CCS offers, as well as interviews of food pantry clients about their experiences.

Information from

• Elkhart Memorial grad to hold concert, food drive to benefit Church Community Services (etruth.com)

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Community event: ‘Wednesday at the Elkhart County 4-H Fair’

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Activism, Baby Animals, Commercial Buiding, Community Service, Displays, Elephant Ears, Elkhart County 4-H Fair, Elkhart County Community Serviices Booth, Entertainment, Fair Food, Family Fun, Family Good Times, Fun, Glen Campbell, GOP Exhibit, Humane Society of Elkhart County Booth, Rides, Talent Show, Tickets, Volunteering

The crowd enjoys the talent competition.

Waiting for a turtle to come out of his or her shell. (Exhibit by Elkhart County Park Department)

 

Elkhart Community Services provides Elkhart residents with a food pantry, a mentoring program, utility assistance and rent assistance. Please stop by their booth to purchase outstanding food items, make a donation, offer to volunteer or to find out more about their programs.

The Republican booth took 3rd place for best non-commercial exhibit.

Don’t forget to stop by Commercial Building E, Booth 1 and say HI to the Humane Society of Elkhart County! Bring us a picture of an animal you adopted from us and see it on a poster board in the shelter! Also view the pictures of animals that have found “forever” homes on our board at the fair.

Everybody wants the sheriff’s car.

Hungry? There is SO MUCH delicious food from which to CHOOSE.

Who can resist an elephant ear? Not me!