Serving Others

We’re passionate about serving God by serving the world.  As much as we value the inward journey of faith and exploring what it means to love God, we are passionate about the outward journey, and finding new ways to love our neighbor as ourselves. Serving others is at the heart of what we do and who we are.  Our Outreach Ministry works to enrich, encourage, and serve local, regional, and global communities.

Our Outreach Ministry works to enrich, encourage, and serve local, regional, and global communities.

Crossroads High School

Our congregation has enjoyed supporting Crossroads High School, initially through our Epiphany program, but expanding to involve the entire congregation. We have set up teams that organize baby clothes for distribution to the students, and we have collected food items the school has requested for their food pantry. Some of our members have volunteered in the school’s quilting and crocheting classes. We have supported their Thanksgiving Day festivities and provided a home cooked turkey for their banquet. For Christmas, our members provided cupcakes for the student body, along with Christmas gift bags with twenty-four baby quilts from one of our members’ quilting group, Quilts to Share, along with hand warmers and baby wipes. Unfortunately, due to the Coronavirus, all the schools in California were closed, and students went to online learning. We have contacted the school staff to let them know we are here to help when they decide to reopen.

SHARE Food Pantry

Located on our campus, SHARE provides monthly food assistance for families in the central Contra Costa County. They buy most of their non-perishable food from the county food bank, and they receive food donations from Safeway and Trader Joe’s. When the Covid 19 crisis was apparent, these local stores quickly sold out of bread, meat and other staples. Suddenly, there was an increase in demand for food because many people were not receiving their usual pay checks. SHARE was struggling to provide many of the necessary food items for their clients.

Our congregation continues to support SHARE and our Outreach team held a Mega Donation Day in June, 2020 and collected a room full of donations for SHARE.

If you would like to donate food items, they are open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10am until 1:40pm or you can send a check to SHARE, PO Box 399, Concord CA 94522.

North Concord Shelter meal program

In the summer of 2019, the county revised the conditions on how faith facilities could serve meals to the Concord shelter and public events, allowing churches to receive a registration permit to heat and serve meals in their facilities. We continued to buy pre-made main dishes, such as chicken, donated side dishes from restaurants, bagged salads, and canned items to provided monthly meals to the shelter, and were about to go through the process to be registered but we were waiting for approval when the pandemic arrived. For a time, we continued to serve the meals but in individual containers. Then, due to health concerns, the clients at the Respite Center and at the Concord shelter were moved to hotel accommodations and no longer needed food services. We continue to stay in touch with the coordinator and collect items such as men’s wallets, belts and eyeglasses and any items that they may request.

Winter Nights

FCC Concord is one of many Contra Costa congregations that support the Winter Nights program, which provides meals and a clean, safe, and warm facility for families during the coldest months of the year.  Families stay in one church for two weeks at a time and are served breakfast and dinner each day, along with a bagged lunch.  Tutoring is offered to school children, and supervised playtime is available as well. FCC Concord often partners with another church to provide the needed services.

The Social Justice Alliance of the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County administers the Winter Nights Rotating Family Shelter.

2019-2020 was the first season that the Winter Nights shelter was extended to East County. We were fortunate to be one of the churches to volunteer and serve meals for one week to the fifteen families in the program before the pandemic.

Once Covid 19 hit, all volunteer contact was ceased and the Winter Night families remained together in quarantine, receiving meals prepared by local restaurants. The staff assisted with the online education for the children. By May, the staff secured housing for almost all the families and the county helped with placement for the remaining two families.

The (overnight) parking lot program, which had four cars every night, functioned through May. One young man found a room to rent and two families found housing.

Because of the wonderful reputation of the Winter Nights program, they received grants from the United Way, Sunlight Giving, the Lesher Foundation and churches who donated the money that they would otherwise have spent on the meals and supplies.

During this year the Winter Nights board prepared for and received their own 501c3 nonprofit status and are now independent of the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County. Donating to the Winter Nights program is as easy as sending a check, or visiting their newly updated website.

Hope Solutions Contra Costa Interfaith Housing

Formerly known as Contra Costa Interfaith Housing, Hope Solutions heals the effects of poverty and homelessness by providing permanent housing solutions and vital support services to highly vulnerable families and individuals. Last December we participated in their Spirit of Giving program and supported four families at Christmas with two presents for each member in the family and over $350 in Safeway gift cards! For several years we have sponsored the year-end graduation party for the students and their families at the Lakeside Apartments in Concord. Due to Coronavirus, we were unable to participate this year.

First Place for Youth

This organization finds housing, job training and education for young adults that have aged out of the Foster Care program. During the pandemic many of these young adults found it hard to find essential food and other items at the local stores. We included both First Place for Youth and Hope Solutions on our list of organizations to support at our Donation Day and we collected several gift cards and items for their clients.

Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County

We continue to be a member of this organization which is an asset to our faith communities. They provide spiritual support, volunteer opportunities, information on what other faiths are doing in the community as well as environmental and social justice reforms for our county.