Grace Church Outreach – a brief History:
Caring for the disabled, widowed and the destitute was the responsibility of the Vestry from the colonial days when the Episcopal Church served as both the religious and civic authority. Caring for our neighbors, near and far, with time, funds and talents has continued as a vibrant aspect Grace Church parish life. In 1932, when the church budget was only $3,500, a third of this amount was designated for “missionary work” locally, regionally and “For Work in Churches, Hospitals, and Schools throughout the World”.
The Grace Historic Farm Tour & Country Fair, now an annual event, began in 2010 to raise funds for Grace outreach ministries that support local community organizations. All Farm Tour proceeds are dedicated to community ministries, based on an application and selection process. During the first 9 years, the donations totaled nearly a half million. Click HERE for a list of past Outreach Ministry recipients funded through the Farm Tour. Click HERE for the list of current year Outreach Ministry recipients funded through the Farm Tour.
The long-standing commitment of Grace to community service has benefitted the following local organizations and area non-profit agencies over the years:
Caring for the disabled, widowed and the destitute was the responsibility of the Vestry from the colonial days when the Episcopal Church served as both the religious and civic authority. Caring for our neighbors, near and far, with time, funds and talents has continued as a vibrant aspect Grace Church parish life. In 1932, when the church budget was only $3,500, a third of this amount was designated for “missionary work” locally, regionally and “For Work in Churches, Hospitals, and Schools throughout the World”.
The Grace Historic Farm Tour & Country Fair, now an annual event, began in 2010 to raise funds for Grace outreach ministries that support local community organizations. All Farm Tour proceeds are dedicated to community ministries, based on an application and selection process. During the first 9 years, the donations totaled nearly a half million. Click HERE for a list of past Outreach Ministry recipients funded through the Farm Tour. Click HERE for the list of current year Outreach Ministry recipients funded through the Farm Tour.
The long-standing commitment of Grace to community service has benefitted the following local organizations and area non-profit agencies over the years:
- Habitat for Humanity: Grace is a covenant church with the Charlottesville Area Habitat for Humanity and has provided building and mentoring volunteers for nearly 20 years.
- Hospice of the Piedmont: One of the first Hospice of the Piedmont volunteers was the daughter of a former Grace rector; the parish provided “seed money” for the Journeys and Transitions grief programs.
- Salvation Army: Parish volunteers began providing meals 35 years ago and now host 3 dinners per month.
- Scholarships and aid to area nonprofits, including international aid: Over the years, larger projects have included a 4-H Scholarship fund, a Recording for the Blind recording booth, an addition to Schoolhouse Thrift Shop, equipment for the Children’s Dental Clinic and the Free Clinic, a village water system in Cameroon, individual home cooking stoves and water pipes for a village in Paraguay, commitment to an annual expansion of a school library in Tanzania, and salaries for aides in China working in a residential center for children with special needs.
- Back-Pack Programs: Grace volunteers provide weekly food backpacks for Stony Point students identified by the school counselor and their parent as being at risk for food insecurity.
- Food Closet: For 14 years beginning as a Lenten project, Grace hosted monthly Food Closet distribution of food boxes to the working poor. Anyone who came to the event received a box, no income verification necessary. The Food Closet was stopped as a mission in Fall, 2022 due to dwindling participation over time and a rise in alternative community resources that fit the community's needs. Over 100 Grace volunteers worked to make the Food Closet happen in its 14 years of operation.
- Rummage Sale: Until recently, the Episcopal Church Woman (ECW) organized rummage sales semi-annually. Surplus items have gone to a crisis center in southwest Virginia, the local Salvation Army, Habitat store and Goodwill. Funds have previously been donated for scholarships to Shrine Mont camps, to the Boys' Home, St. Jude Hospital and Jackson-Field Home for Girls, and other needs when asked. The Grace ECW has taken Christmas presents to patients at Western State Hospital and visited shut-ins with fruit baskets at Thanksgiving.
- Zion Hill "Community Cares" Food Box distribution: Since 2021, Grace has supported this event which is held the week before Thanksgiving. In 2021, Grace donated 2 carloads of bread and baked goods, as well as meat and cleaning supplies. In 2022, Grace Church donated funds to purchase produce and other items from the Black Farmers of America for this event. Volunteers from Grace helped pick up the produce at the Jefferson Center in town.
- Community groups such as AA continue to meet in the parish house weekly.
