Above artwork provided by children at the ACCA Child Development Center as they celebrate Thanksgiving. |
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Thank you to everyone in the ACCA Community including churches, friends, and neighbors for your generosity. Although this year has been a huge challenge, we are grateful to our community who continues to support its needy families. |
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Child Development Center
The children at the CDC will have a special Thanksgiving meal this week including chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Fifty of our families will be receiving turkeys and other food items for Thanksgiving and every child will be bringing a pie home to share with their families.
The staff at the CDC celebrated Thanksgiving with a virtual screening of the movie "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood". After the movie, staff participated in a panel presentation that discussed mindfulness and how we could all use a little kindness. This event was such a success that we are planning to share another screening in the near future.
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Food Pantry Collections Continue at ACCA
The Food Pantry was a very busy place in November, thanks to local youth who led their scout and school groups in collecting tons of food for families in need.
On November 14th and 15th, three local scout troops participated in Scouting for Food and as a result, the pantry received 7,067 pounds of donations. The scouts worked differently this year, accepting drive-through donations rather than collecting door-to-door and they had great success.
Troop and Pack 50 (Holy Spirit Catholic Church): 1,744 pounds
Troop 150 (Annandale United Methodist Church): 2,404 pounds
Trop 875 (Sleepy Hollow United Methodist Church): 2,919 pounds
The pantry was open Saturday November 21st to accept food donations and volunteers were astonished at the number of generous individuals and groups who came by to donate food and money. We received $350 in donations and a total of 2,895 pounds of food:
Anonymous donors: 588 pounds
Westminster School: 274 pounds
Latter Day Saints: 209 pounds
Giant Food Annandale; 304 pounds
Justice High School Key Club: 746 pounds
Falls Church - Annandale Lions Club: 602 pounds
Boy Scout Troop 1789 172 pounds
We are in need of food captains and delivery personnel. If you have a few hours to help on weekdays please sign up to help here. Because of the increased need for emergency food supplies, we will continue to collect donations on Saturday mornings from 9 am. – 11:30 a.m. on December 5 and 19 at the food pantry located at 7200 Columbia Pike (trailer separate from the day care center) in Annandale. Weekday food collections will take place from 1 – 5 p.m. Pantry volunteers are following social distancing guidelines while volunteering at the pantry and we encourage visitors to keep the health and safety of our volunteers in mind while donating.
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Winter Outerwear Collection |
Please drop off donations of winter outerwear on Saturday, December 5 from 10 a.m. until noon, at the ACCA Furniture Warehouse located on the campus of Annandale United Methodist Church next to the little white church at 6935 Columbia Pike in Annandale.
Clothes collected during this drive will be shared with local day laborers, the children and families of the ACCA Child Development Center, and residents of the Baileys Shelter. Donations should be winter jackets, hooded sweat shirts and sweaters, gloves, scarves and wool pullover hats for men, women, and children of all sizes. Please avoid dress attire (overcoats, shirts, suits) and other things.
Donations should be placed in 30 gallon plastic bags and sorted and labelled with the quantity, type of clothing and sizes enclosed. Please practice social distancing and wear a mask when you arrive at the warehouse. Help us out by sharing this with your friends and neighbors. Thank you for your generosity.
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The COVID Challenge Campaign
is coming in December. Look for updates very soon.
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Families in Need
Who benefits from our work? Here are some recent examples:
- An elderly couple living on an extremely low income requested financial assistance with dental work. The husband and wife each required a root canal, the total cost of which was roughly 2 months income. ACCA paid a portion for each and the couple paid the remainder.
- A non-English speaking couple who shared rent with their son are suffering from the recent death of their son. The father’s income was temporarily suspended when he was hospitalized with COVID. He currently lives with another son as he is not able to walk and requires medical devices. It will be at least another month before he is able to return to work. The couple requested utility assistance for one month, which ACCA paid.
- A senior citizen who supports her disabled adult child lost her part time job as a substitute teacher when schools closed due to COVID. She has no source of income except SSI for her son and food stamps, so she was unable to pay her utility bill. She requested financial assistance with the past due bill and requested gas cards as well. The social worker is helping this client find a different part time job until the schools reopen.
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Emergency Assistance
As a result of ACCA's strong partnership with Fairfax County Government, we were awarded a $3.1 million grant to help provide support services during the pandemic. This support is primarily in the form of rent to families who have lost jobs and income due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first 3 weeks of October alone, we provided $488,000 in rental assistance to families in Annandale and Bailey’s Crossroads. We are grateful to the county for enabling us to help our neighbors remain in their homes during this unprecedented time. Unfortunately, with trends continuing in this direction, we anticipate a shortfall over the coming winter.
A big thank you to our Family Emergency Assistance volunteers who have been working overtime to keep families in their homes!
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Ministries Updates for October |
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Food Ministry - The pantry delivered food and hygiene supplies to 87 families totaling 287 individuals. Also, another 27 families totaling 88 individuals received gift cards.
Family Emergency Assistance - In addition to the CARES grant expenditures, ACCA provided over $20,000 in assistance to 67 clients in October including for rent, utilities, and medical bills.
Furniture Ministry - ACCA completed 7 deliveries of household furniture and made 11 pickups and had 2 donations made at the warehouse. The actions involved 4 churches: St. Barnabas and Cornerstone Evangelical Free, St. Albans Episcopal and Annandale United Methodist. Deliveries were to households that included 4 female head of household, 5 households with children, and 2 households with a disability with one including a person over 55 years of age. The work was accomplished by a total of 34 volunteers completing 125.5 hours of volunteer time. . If you are able to volunteer or have others in your circle, please let us know at ddmld@verizon.net if you or someone you know will be able to join the team.
Transportation - The ACCA-Shepherd’s Center transportation program provided 37 rides in October; all ride requests were fulfilled.
CROP Walk - Our 2020 Annandale CROP Hunger Walk was virtual. To date, seven ACCA churches (United Baptist, John Calvin Presbyterian, St Barnabas Episcopal, Peace Lutheran, St. Anthony of Padua, Ravensworth Baptist and Friendship United Methodist), the Annandale HS Just World Club and one individual are participating. The Annandale CROP Hunger Walk raises funds for Church World Service (CWS). Walkers collect donations to CWS from sponsors either online or by check or cash. CWS will share part of the funds raised with ACCA. As of October 31, we have received a total of $11,945 in check, cash and online donations for the Annandale CROP Hunger Walk. Thanks to all who plan to walk and or donate to the walk.
Rebuilding Together - The national work day remains on hold as the nation deals with the coronavirus. However, the Rebuilding Together Express (RT Express) program which operates throughout the year, and which ACCA supports financially, is now working under stringent health and safety protocols, utilizing small crews to perform limited tasks at detached houses or townhouses.
Homework Club - is continuing its mission by providing essential ESOL classes online to local families.
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ACCA remains committed to the challenge of Jesus, as described in Matthew 25:40: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” |
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