We finished up our Each One, Feed One food drive at the end of June, adding about 3,500 pounds of nonperishable food items to our food pantry. Alarmingly, those items are entirely gone already. In fact, last month, we served over 400 families in the food pantry - that is more than double our previous record. More and more individuals are needing our services, and we are going to need all of the help that we can get to be able to ensure that we can continue serving our neighbors.

We attribute the large crowd to a couple of different things: raising food prices creating increased need for help, adding delivery days throughout the week, and word-of-mouth awareness of our program (which is actually a good thing). However, we are struggling to keep up. We do not want to overburden or overwhelm our supporters with large-scale drive events, but the need is still there. So, we are trying something new this year: the 'Gimme 5(00) Food Drive. The premise of this drive is that congregations, service clubs, fitness teams, office, book clubs, etc. can pledge to raise 500 of a specific item (ie mac & cheese) from August 29 through September 30. Click the flyer above to enlarge it!

If your office, club, congregation, family, or other group you're a part of would like to claim an item to raise, please sign up by clicking here.

Donations are accepted at 827 W. 14th Ct. 8-4 PM M-F or mcum.org/donate.

Last spring, MCUM received a very generous half-million dollar donation to our endowment specifically for the purpose of its annual distribution benefitting Compass families.

Our program & finance committees decided to create a scholarship opportunity for families enrolled in our Compass Early Learning Center who do not qualify for state and federal childcare assistance but whose income still falls below the county's self-sufficiency standard. By endowing scholarship funds, we create a self-perpetuating pool of funding to be used for this purpose for as long as scholarships are needed. The full program is set to launch in January of 2023.

With the beginning of the new school year and large cost of living hikes, we decided to use some unrestricted funding to pilot the scholarship process a semester early. We were able to award five families with scholarships, reducing their tuition by about $3,000 each for the 2022-23 school year.

The scholarships come with no strings attached, however we are working to make sure all families know about our Individual Development Account program, which creates 1:3 matched savings accounts toward the purchase of assets, and our other programs that will help maximize their savings to the fullest.

If you're interested in learning more about our scholarships or contributing to the pool, please contact Katie.

Join us for a Dine to Donate at Bub's Burgers and Ice Cream on September 19th.

Present the flyer(right) to your server and they will donate 30% of your order back to Monroe County United Ministries!

Bub's is located at 480 N. Morton St. Bloomington, IN 47404. You can dine-in or take your order to-go. You can also order online, here.

We will have A LOT of exciting things coming up in the near future! It's never too early to start looking around for MCUM's Merry Market!

You can donate online any time - we accept PayPal!

From 12 PM - 4 PM Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday (or other times by appointment) MCUM is accepting food, cleaning, and hygiene item donations. 

We are excited to announce the launch of our new merch mart. You can now purchase your MCUM swag all year long, by visiting our new shop:

Please help us extend a HUGE thank you to Mary Jean Holwager who filled in as Interim Executive Director and Erin Vaughn who served as Self-Sufficiency Center Director during these leaves, keeping the organization functioning smoothly. Teamwork makes the dream work!