SHADYSIDE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

The Hunger and Homelessness Mission Action Community (MAC) seeks to connect with non-profit ministries dealing with hunger and homelessness in the metro area of Pittsburgh. They recruit volunteers for the events and ministries which serve to feed and house those in need in Pittsburgh.

Ministries which the Hunger and Homelessness MAC currently supports and some ways in which Shadyside Presbyterian Church members have volunteered:

• East End Cooperative Ministries (EECM): www.eecm.org
  EECM is a ministry in the East Liberty neighborhood that provides services for people and families in need. For those who are hungry, EECM provides Meals on Wheels, a food pantry, and a soup kitchen. For those who are homeless, EECM provides single-night housing, transitional housing, and specialized housing for those who are mentally ill and those with special needs. For the youth of East End, they provide in-school and after-school programming, including tutoring, sports, life skills training, and intervention.
  • The Hunger and Homelessness MAC holds a quarterly food drive for the EECM food pantry and serves monthly meals at the EECM Men's Shelter. Some Shadyside members also participate in the Meals on Wheels program.

• Open Hand Ministries: www.openhandpittsburgh.org
  Open Hand is a cooperative ministry of several churches in the East End that serve the Garfield neighborhood. Working toward the renewal of their neighborhood, Open Hand renovates blighted houses, plants gardens in empty lots, and repairs homes for those who are unable to do so for themselves.
  • Shadyside members have participated in several work days in Garfield and have held fundraisers for this ministry.

• Bethlehem Haven Women’s Shelter: www.bethlehemhaven.org
  Bethlehem Haven is a non-profit organization that provides a number of services to women in the Pittsburgh area, including an emergency shelter, transitional housing, medical services, and employment services.
  • Shadyside members serve dinner once per month at the shelter and collect food donations to aid in Bethlehem Haven’s service to the community.

• Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank: www.pittsburghfoodbank.org
  The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank (GPCFB) literally distributes tons of food each month to low-income neighborhoods around the city. Before food reaches the homes of families in need, it is touched by the hands of many volunteers. (Only twenty-five percent of all food is handled by paid employees of the food bank.) Without the assistance of community volunteers, most of the food would go to waste before it ever reached those who need it most.
  • Shadyside provides volunteers for the food distribution efforts of GPCFB.
     
• Garfield Community Farm (GCF): www.garfieldfarm.com
  Garfield Community Farm seeks to learn, teach and practice organic gardening and farming in the places that have been neglected and abandoned in and with the neighborhood of Garfield.  Neighborhood interns, volunteers from local churches and neighborhood groups, and GCF's small staff helped the Farm have its first successful growing season in 2009. Success was not only evident in crops yielded, but in relationships built, connections made with other neighborhood groups, and progress made for future expansion.
  • Shadyside volunteers helped plant and harvest the crops, in addition to helping prepare the soil and building a fence around the perimeter of the gardens.  Shadyside also contributed to funds to provide a shed at the main garden site.