An important part of GPC’s mission is to “engage our neighbors.” GPC has developed a diverse range of opportunities to serve our local and global community of neighbors. Everyone is welcome to join in our efforts to grow our faith as we lead and serve those outside our church walls.
Come Serve With Us! 
Current Volunteer Opportunities for Community Engagement
GPC’s Community Engagement team is an active outreach group that impacts many people on local, regional, and global levels. Exciting projects are happening all the time – join us as we reach out in God’s love! For a list of areas that currently need help, click here.
Feeding the 5000 Food Drive
Sunday March 10 – Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019
Throughout Lent, GPC will collect food for local organizations that help the hungry in our community.
Please bring contributions to the marked boxes in the Narthex or on the second floor near Pastor Mary Beth’s office.
Current Total as of 3/24: 1,281
#Refugees Welcome
Help Outfit an Apartment for a Refugee Family
“…I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” —Matthew 25:35
Have you been following the refugee crisis, feeling compassion but not knowing what you can do to help? Join KindWorks in their project outfitting apartments for refugees!If you would like to donate items needed to furnish an apartment for a family, including beds, furniture, kitchenware, linens, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc., contact Alexa Abdelatey. You will receive email notification when the next family is coming and instructions on how to proceed. Volunteers will be needed to move furniture and other items, and to set up the apartment for the family.
Help Cook for the MCCH Men’s Shelter!
We cook hot breakfasts that are delivered to the shelter in Rockville.
- 200 residents receive hot Saturday and Sunday breakfast!
- No experience is necessary – all are welcome!
Fridays, March 29 and April 26, 2019
11:00 a.m. | GPC Kitchen
So we know how many helpers to plan for registration is required.
Weis Markets
Supplying St. Martin’s Food Pantry with surplus goods from Weis Markets
The Weis Crew goes to the store several days a week and takes shopping carts to the bakery and meat departments to collect surplus items. The items are then taken to GPC to be sorted. Some bakery items are set aside for So Others Might Eat, a soup kitchen in Washington, D.C., but most of the Weis surplus is taken to St. Martin’s Food Pantry, located just north of GPC on South Frederick Avenue, for distribution to the hungry every Monday morning.
This is an easy way to heed the call to minister to hungry people in our community! It is also a minimal commitment for busy people who may not be able to commit to participating more than once a month. It usually takes only about one hour total! Two members of the Weis Crew are responsible for one day of the month. Often it is easy enough that one member can handle it. We also have a list of substitutes who can fill in if a team member is not available.
If you are interested in joining the Weis Crew, please email Art Eisenhour.
Rebuilding Together
Helping provide low-income homeowners with safer homes
Rebuilding Together Montgomery County (RTMC) offers low-income homeowners safe and healthy home repairs at no cost to the recipient. Over the course of a year, RTMC repairs the homes of more than 100 families, reducing their financial burdens and improving the quality of life for more than 500 people across our county. RTMC’s critical services preserve safe and affordable housing, prevent homelessness, protect a family’s most valuable asset, and stabilize our vulnerable communities. GPC works with RTMC to provide home repair services. This program depends entirely on volunteers to repair and/or renovate the homes. Projects take place for one day in April. Volunteers do not need to be GPC members; anyone older than 14 years of age with any skill level (but experts are also needed!) can participate. GPC offers scholarships to volunteers who cannot afford to contribute toward materials for the projects.
For further information, contact Yaw Obeng.
Gaithersburg HELP
Lending support to this local food pantry in many ways
Gaithersburg HELP is a year-round food pantry that has served the Gaithersburg community since 1968. This is an all-volunteer organization composed of 200 volunteers from more than 25 local congregations, including GPC. It provides short-term, emergency assistance to more than 3,500 families in need. Gaithersburg HELP provides 3-day emergency food supplies based on family size, supplies for infants, help with prescriptions, transportation to medical appointments or to obtain services, and other support and referrals. GPC provides financial support to Gaithersburg HELP, as well as donations of food and supplies. This organization is one of the recipients of the items collected during the Lenten “Feeding of the 5000” Food Drive that GPC members participate in each year. Gaithersburg HELP always needs volunteers to assist with telephone screening, provide transportation for clients, perform administrative tasks, or serve in the food pantry.
A list of current volunteer opportunities, along with a link to the volunteer application, can be found here. For more information on ways that you can get involved, please contact Gaithersburg HELP or visit www.gaithersburghelp.org.
SOME (So Others Might Eat)
Serving up French toast and more on the first Tuesday of every month
SOME (So Others Might Eat) is an interfaith organization that takes a holistic approach to helping the poor and homeless in Washington, D.C. During the past 40+ years, SOME has grown from a local soup kitchen to a comprehensive program that provides affordable housing; employment training and placement services; medical, dental, and mental health care; meals and clothing; addiction treatment and counseling; and more. It is a vibrant, faith-based program that offers hope and a fresh start to thousands of poor and homeless individuals and families each year.
GPC provides financial support to SOME, and volunteers from GPC prepare a hot breakfast for 400–500 individuals at the SOME dining room on the first Tuesday of each month. SOME serves a nutritious breakfast and lunch at its main facility on “O” Street in northwest D.C. every day of the year, and GPC volunteers have been providing the hot breakfast once a month for more than 30 years!Volunteers can participate in two ways: (1) join the GPC SOME Crew and help cook breakfast when you can, and (2) donate the ingredients for breakfast. The SOME Crew is simply a list of people who have said that they would like to go to SOME with a group from GPC and help prepare breakfast, whenever they are available. Each month an e-mail is sent out to see who is available, and the group is assembled based on the responses.
Food items are donated by volunteers each month. Donations needed include eggs, bread, syrup, apple sauce, and orange juice. Additional items (ham and milk) and whatever items are not received as donations are purchased with support from the GPC Community Engagement Ministry budget. Food donations should be delivered to the GPC kitchen on the Sunday before the first Tuesday of the month. For more information on how to join the GPC SOME Crew or donate food for the breakfast, contact Steve Olin.
Prison Ministry
Connecting with local inmates
GPC’s Prison Ministry is a group of volunteers affiliated with the St. James’ Prison Ministry—a consortium of local churches serving Montgomery County’s inmate population and their families at the three correctional facilities: the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Boyds, the Montgomery County Detention Center in Rockville, and the Pre-Release and Re-Entry Services Center, also in Rockville. Volunteers are involved in a wide variety of activities, including meeting and praying with inmates, collecting and distributing religious literature and greeting cards, mentoring and participating in job partnership programs, and providing other services as needed.If you are interested in volunteering with the Prison Ministry, please contact Mary Wasik.
Community Schools
Supporting Students and Teachers in many ways
We’ve changed our name but not our mission. Almost 10 years ago GPC began its involvement with Summit Hall Elementary School. Our goal is still to reach out to families and students that need extra help with winter clothing and occasional money for groceries and necessities not covered by food stamps. In 2018 the Community Engagement committee expanded our reach to include Rosemont Elementary and Forest Oak Middle School. These schools have similar needs and are grateful for the goods and gift cards we can send their way as well as our prayers and good wishes.
Two summers ago Summit Hall ES added two eight classroom portables. The teamwork of GPC guys that helped move classroom materials and even two pianos to meet the deadline for the beginning of school was remarkable. Unfortunately the portables take up so much space that the loved Move It Monday running program, that we helped staff, had to be discontinued.
We still have volunteers helping in classrooms at SHES, by working on math or writing with the students, and doing copying for the teachers. One member has diligently up dated the book room used by the teachers. With Rosemont and Forest Oak our primary support is through the contributions.
Collecting Box Tops for Education is something we can all do by checking our food boxes and labels. These little stamp like items earn the schools money to spend on extras that the budget can’t provide. There are collection boxes in Lindsay Hall and the church office.
Our Christmas Giving Tree tags help GPC members know the needs of families so many of our members can support the school families. Some volunteers have worked on trash pickup, trimming trees, planting chrysanthemums, and providing craft programs for kids during family dinners at school. One summer the GPC youth group spent a 90 degree day helping with outdoor cleanup and cooling off inside labeling new books for the bookroom.
The opportunities are endless and new events may include meeting with a group of mother’s to get to know them and have them hear English in an informal learning opportunity. Also a reading specialist has asked me to get a group of volunteers to help collate papers into packets.
Some of the mothers from SHES helped us cook breakfasts at GPC for the Men’s Shelter. They look forward to another opportunity to join in that activity.
Please consider helping us with this neighborhood project. The rewards cannot be measured. I enjoy seeing the smiles on the students’ faces when I show up to volunteer. They all crave some special attention. Don’t we too?
For more information, contact Marilyn Morrison.
