Ministry for Mission Outreach and Social Action

Family Promise of Bergen County (formerly the Interreligious Fellowship for the Homeless of Bergen County) is an ongoing focus of our outreach. We raise money for transitional housing (New Leaf Program) as well as other  programs. We have, along with about 80 other churches in the area, provided volunteers for the Family and Overflow shelters as needed.

Groceries and other ongoing needs are collected weekly and are brought to the Center for Food Action's distribution center in Englewood. In addition, we sponsor an annual Stuff the Bus major food drive that attracts widespread support from the local community as we collect over 200 bags 

of groceries to fill a commuter bus.

Martha's Place, in Baltimore, is a halfway house for women recovering from drug addiction through faith-based guidance and assistance. Throughout the year, we collect items for their daily living needs to help them get back into life, drug-free.

We help provide much needed supplies for the Christian Overcomers, an organization which sponsors three summer-fall retreat camps for the disabled and their caretakers.

During the Christmas season, we participate in the Dumont Snowflake Program, providing gifts for needy families in Dumont and vicinity. This past Christmas, we supplemented our gifts with a "Mitten Tree" (gloves, mittens, hats, and scarves were collected in abundance).

We also decorate and fill cookie cans at our "Christmas Is..." event each December, then arrange a joint "Carol-Sing" with the patients to deliver them to Spectrum for Living in Closter.

We periodically hold fundraisers for Shelter Our Sisters, a local organization which protects, shelters, and counsels battered women and their children.

During Lent, we join with our Ministry for Children and Youth to sponsor "Fill The Ark", a program of Heifer International whose mission it is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth. Children learn the importance of animals, sustainable agriculture, and the environment and how "Passing on the Gift" helps peoples around the world lead more productive, self-reliant lives.

In the spring, we participate in One Great Hour of Sharing, a campaign in which the United Church of Christ works with several other denominations to provide global support through food, medicine, educational, and self-sufficiency programs throughout the world.

The UCC’s  Neighbors In Need program in the fall largely supports the Native American culture in this country as well as other national issues such as victims of disaster.

We support the UCC’s Equal Exchange Program through purchases of coffee, tea, and chocolate. For every pound of coffee we purchase, the UCC provides aid and assistance to small farmers in South America, India, and Asia. This is not a money making endeavor (although it could be); rather, it is a JUSTICE issue which we deem important.

Throughout the year, we clip grocery coupons and ship them to military bases overseas. Military families overseas do not have access to the weekly coupon books we take for granted and their incomes are typically low.

We collect discarded cell phones throughout the year. Cell phone parts are recycled/sold and profits provide calling cards for troops stationed overseas, enabling them to call home.