Helping the Homeless & Hungry
The Missions/Service committee of LCN has chosen to focus on serving the homeless and hungry, with volunteer opportunities and donation drives to support programs such as the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, Centre Street Food Pantry, and other organizations that provide services to those in need in the Greater Boston area.
Operation Elf 2025
This year LCN members contributed 99 bags of gifts for children and youth in at-risk situations, through the Massachusetts-based non-profit Operation ELF. The photo below left shows the bags in the truck, and below right are many of the volunteers who helped to load the truck on a cold & snowy morning!
Cradles to Crayons
Past Support:
GBIO: As members of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, LCN members have participated in various events for housing justice and other issues in greater Boston.
Tamale Benefit: LCN members purchased tamales or made donations to help support the Eastern Service Workers Association for Boston area workers in warehousing, food processing, housekeeping, personal care, and many other occupations whose employees are not paid a living wage.
Operation Elf: We provided gift bags and additional monetary donations for gift cards for children at risk across New England.
Cradles to Crayons: In addition to several bags of clothing donations, a hearty band of LCN members quality-checked and cleaned 100 pairs of shoes in 2 hours!
Mission Support for Asylum-seeking refugee family: LCN, along with two other local ELCA congregations, has supported a Haitian family seeking asylum in the United States. The family has been settled in a local apartment and in the community (schools, work, etc.).
Souper Bowl of Caring: Over the past several years we have collected food and monetary donations which were contributed to local food pantries.
Who We Support
Harvard Square Homeless Shelter
The Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, located in the basement of University Lutheran Church, is a student-run shelter which runs from November 1 to April 15. We support the shelter through supply drives and monetary donations throughout the year. See below for some photos of prior donations from LCN.
Souper Bowl of Caring
For over thirty years, the Souper Bowl of Caring has transformed the “Big Game” into a nation-wide movement inspiring people to give locally and make a collective impact on hunger. LCN has supported and participated in this movement on Souper Bowl Sunday by collecting food and/or monetary donations during our service on that Sunday. These donations have been given to the Centre Street Food Pantry or the Newton Food Pantry.
Mission Support
LCN provides outreach ministry support to Resurrection Lutheran Church in Roxbury, MA and Inglesia Nuevo Amanecer, a mission church
sharing a building with Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in East Boston.
Centre Street Food Pantry
LCN holds food drives throughout the year for the Centre Street Food Pantry. Donations can be made to the Pantry’s Kids Club; requested items can be found on the food pantry’s website. Financial donations are also extremely welcome, as the need for food continues to grow.
In addition, LCN has served as a secondary storage space for the food pantry when needed. This is a story of LCN in action, listening for the needs of our surrounding community, and then mobilizing to open our doors in response.
Haffenreffer Fund
As part of the Haffenreffer legacy at LCN, we have the opportunity to donate two $1,000.00 grants to local not-for-profit organizations annually. The Haffenreffer Fund statement of purpose is to award grants to an organization that supports at least two of the following criteria:
Prior grant recipients include the Rian Immigrant Center, Justice Health Initiative Inc., Equal Justice Initiative, Newton at Home, Massachusetts Council of Churches, St. Paul International Lutheran Church (Tokyo, Japan), ELCA Mount of Olives Housing Project, Lutheran World Federation – Jerusalem, St. Christopher’s Mission (Episcopal Church in Navajoland, Utah), Central Asia Institute, Edwon (Empower Dalit Women of Nepal), Horizons for Homeless Children (Putnam Center in Jamaica Plain) and others.
"Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the orphan; plead the case of the widow."
Isaiah 1:17
