Benincasa – A 2 bed hospice in Mendon (Located in the historical Manse of Mendon Church) providing care and support for people suffering from terminal illnesses since 1996. The three Churches of Mendon (St. Catherine’s Church, St. Mark’s Church, and Mendon Church) are Charter founders and representatives of each of these Churches currently sit on their Board of Directors. For 19 of the last 20 years we have put on a Spaghetti Dinner with 100% of the proceeds benefitting Benincasa. This year we raised monies through this dinner, pie baking and sales. Additionally, we collect Marketplace grocery store receipts for cash redemption to Benincasa. The Mendon Gospel Choir also held a concert event in which the contributions directly benefit Benincasa.
Food Cupboards – These are local programs with the mission to provide food for the needy in our general vicinity and downtown Rochester. We support both the FISH Food Cupboard and the Calvary-St Andrews Food Cupboard with canned and dried food contributions dropped into two large baskets at the entrances to our Church. We drop off food about once every 2 months.
Calvary-St Andrews Church – We collect mittens and layette items through an annual Christmas Mitten Tree and a Women’s Dinner in which the men cook and serve the women of the Church and the women bring layette items for young unwed mothers supported in a program at Calvary- St. Andrews Church.
Open Door Mission– This is a faith-based non-profit program in downtown Rochester providing food, shelter and ministry to homeless men, women and children. We also participated in their Back to School Backpack Project and delivered 13 backpacks stocked with school supplies for needy children.
Cameron Ministries – This is an urban Outreach Community Center in downtown Rochester that provides youth programs, hot meals and clothing to needy families. Our Church has helped fund 2 of their youth to attend Mercy High School next year. We prepared and served a dinner to 90 people. We also collect and donate supplies for children in their youth program.
Empowering Young Women Project– This is a project started by one of our members, Irene Kamara, to support young women, aged 12 to 15, to increase their personal skills and self-esteem by selling t-shirts, visiting local businesses, colleges, and Churches. They will use the proceeds to have a formal dinner and explore future career possibilities.
Lima Christian School Library – This is a library for a local Christian school. We collect Campbell’s Soup can labels for cash redemption to this program.
Habitat for Humanity – This is a charity that builds homes for the needy all over the world. This last year we bought materials to have our youth build a shed behind our Church that was later delivered to a local needy family.
