UUC’s Second Sunday Plate collections serve as a direct expression of our faith through justice and service work. This month's plate will go to the Eckstein Community Cupboard.

The Eckstein Community Cupboard has been in the making since UUC's Social Justice Revival Potluck last fall. At that event, attendees presented proposals for various social justice and community-care related opportunities. After a vote, the Eckstein Community Cupboard project was approved.

The Community Cupboard brings together members of the Faith Land Initiative, Social Justice Steering Committee, and Homelessness Ministry. The new group is led by Patricia Graesser, Emily Joseph, Alisan Tucker-Giesey, and Cynthia Salzman, in partnership with staff at Eckstein Middle School. Eckstein is our nearest public neighborhood school, ten blocks away on NE 75th Street.

The Community Cupboard supports 15-20 low-income Eckstein Middle School families by providing a secondary location and day of the week for local families to pick up needed household supplies. The plate collection this Sunday, the week before our first distribution day, will allow us to purchase needed items to ensure we have a good stock for the families. UUC volunteers will distribute supplies on the third Saturday of each month beginning September 19. Families can come to our parking lot at the designated times and pick out needed items, such as laundry detergent, soap, trash bags and toilet paper.

By using our individual and collective resources as a congregation, we are helping to ensure local families and students have needed items. We are also supporting our local middle school by providing funds and supplies, which would then allow the school’s funds to go toward paying the school social worker (a position funded through donations and fundraising by the PTSA). The social worker will also have more funds available to support requests for rent and utilities assistance, helping tenuously housed families stay housed.

After we begin distribution days, members of UUC may contribute by donating funds or items, as well as volunteering on the designated pick-up days (pending a background check). Supply-gathering and sorting days will also be volunteer opportunities for our youth.

If you are interested in learning more, join us at our Learning Station in Nathan Johnson Hall after each service on September 13.