The Power of Partnership

Partnerships aren’t easy.

They take work. If done right, they often take more work than doing something on your own. But when you work at partnerships, you build Relationships… and through that you build Community.

That makes an important difference just in itself! Especially when so many are spreading division.

And, on top of that benefit? Guess what? You make a difference for Other people too!

The Bloomfield Backpack Program at Bloomfield Congregational Church in Connecticut provides food to children who lack access to quality food over the weekend. It is a response to a problem identified by teachers, who have noticed that the ability of some children to focus on their classes is much different on Monday morning than the rest of the week. The cause? These children get good meals at the school during the week through free meal programs, but those meals go away over the weekends.

Each Friday during the school year, roller bags of food are provided for the children to take home for their families. The objective is to feed the whole family in addition to the child. In the first week of the program, which began in October, there were 14 families in the program. That number grew each week to 24, then 45 – and is now at 84. By the holidays it will be over 100 families served each week.