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PROJECT NEIGHBOR CARE (PNC)
Matthew 22:37-39: "Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
As members of the Long Branch (Takoma Park/Silver Spring) community, Clifton Park Baptist Church (CPBC) is seeking to be a conduit of love, encouragement and support to our neighbors. Toward this end, we have initiated Project Neighbor Care (PNC) - a dynamic undertaking that transforms our food bank and clothes closet into a vibrant community market offering quality food (including fresh produce), clothing and household items to area families every first Saturday of the month.
This creative community market exists to assist local families with the basic necessity of food and seasonal clothing within a warm and engaging atmosphere in which men, women and children are served with respect. In addition to food and clothing, PNC also offers blood pressure screenings and serves as a space for neighbors to gather and share community.
Overall, PNC has proven to be a remarkable means for displaying genuine Christian love and has become a unique vehicle for building impressive community partnerships.
- For one, PNC partners CPBC with local grocery store owners/managers and non-profit organizations who donate generously to the effort. Current partners include: The Capital Area Food Bank, Safeway, Panera Bread, Upper Crust Bakery, and Diakon Kathryn's Kloset.
- Secondly, PNC connects CPBC to local community centers, apartment managers, service organizations, and government agencies who work with us to inform families about this amazing resource. With their help, we are able to reach and serve nearly 400 households each month!
- Thirdly, PNC serves as a platform to highlight other essential community assets. It creates space for other community organizations?including IMPACT Silver Spring's Sewing Circle and Kaiser Permanente?to share key resources with families.
- Finally, PNC has joined CPBC with an incredible Hispanic congregation, Iglesia Bautista Cristo Vive (Jesus Lives Baptist Church). Our two churches are enthusiastically working together to serve to the Hispanic Community.
As a whole, PNC is bringing CPBC and its community together in an authentic and meaningful way. Members of CPBC have an opportunity each Thursday preceding PNC to introduce themselves to neighbors and announce the upcoming market through a door-knocking initiative. These Thursday conversations continue on market days as CPBC welcomes and serves the wonderful families of its diverse community.
Our advancing work in the community has not gone unnoticed. Members of the county are speaking and making their excitement known. For one, Betty Lam, Chief of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Community Affairs stated in her letter of support:
"In an area with ongoing un- and under-employment, the CPBC Community Market serves as an important additional resource to local families. Moreover, the program actively works in collaboration with other existing service organizations?including IMPACT Silver Spring?and thus contributes to effective and thriving community partnerships. We are happy to support the CPBC Free Community Market as an added resource to our families and as a tool in our community building."
We are thankful to the Lord for the opportunity to help support families in our community! Please contact us if you have any questions or wish to learn how you might contribute in some way toward this exciting community endeavor.
For more information on Project Neighbor Care contact Nana Dolce, Community Outreach Coordinator. Email: ndolce@cpbc.net
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