Fall is here: And with a little rain and cooler nights, people living on very little often look forward to a hot meal provided in a welcoming setting. On October 17 and November 21, MPC Youth, their advisers, family members and other HAWG and MPC members, worked together to serve dinners at College
Avenue Presbyterian Church. This makes four Friday nights this year that MPC has hosted dinner there. This is a wonderful way to meet and work with Youth as well as help others.
Goal – Serve More Hot Meals: HAWG members want to grow the number of people who are helping to serve meals this winter. It is an easy and satisfying way to participate directly in your community. The College Avenue experience is one of planning and preparing food for the relatively large number of people who arrive to eat. In contrast, the program at St. Mary’s Senior Center involves each volunteer, as part of a team, bringing already-prepared food, like a salad or side dish and sitting down to share the meal with a small number of seniors who live temporarily at the center. While both activities are serving those less fortunate, they each offer a different interaction for volunteers. We will be asking for more support in this effort. Which one-time effort would interest you?
Food Drives at MPC are Over for the Year: We raised $257 in cash and one barrel of canned goods for the Alameda County Community Food Basket through our Play Ball! Fundraiser. The game provided 
the chance to bet on the outcome through donating the canned goods or buying tickets, and the winners got to choose from several appropriate baseball-themed prizes. We won’t be hosting any more canned goods drives until next year, because, typically, this is the time of year when most of the goods are collected from all sources. And, as stated above, our focus will be on serving meals and supporting the Fruitvale pantry.
Upcoming Service Dates: Contact any HAWG member for more details.
Fruitvale Pantry – Dec. 5 and 20; Jan. 3, 17, and 31
St. Mary’s meals – Jan. 28, Feb. 11, Mar 25, Apr 29
College Avenue Presbyterian Church – Jan. 16, Feb. 20., Mar. 20.