We Love Our City: How a Church in the Community Became the Community’S Church

When the We Love Our City, weloveourcity.org, community outreaches began at our church, we were serving several hundred underresourced people in different ways. After years of learning how to partner with different organizations, we now feed over twenty-five thousand people every month at our food banks in three different cities. Each one of these cities has a population of over one hundred thousand people. On a weekly basis we provide fresh produce to five underserved elementary schools in three cities with a total student population of over five thousand. We work in twenty-five different high-risk neighborhoods representing over ninety blocks on a weekly basis in five different cities. Not included in the twenty-five thousand people we feed at our three food banks are the people we feed every Saturday in five different cities of our Adopt a Block program. Over ninety blocks receive free food every Saturday, and I dont even know how many thousands that is because they do not sign government forms for the donated food, and we dont count; we just serve. We serve as the official graffiti abatement team for two cities and the Napa Valley, manage a community center that provides a free afterschool program and summer program in one of our at-risk neighborhoods. We have free mobile medical clinics and free bookmobiles that travel to those in need of these services. We recently converted what was known at city hall as the Ghetto Trail into a one-acre community garden in the most violent area of the city. We have a mobile hair salon, a mobile dental clinic, and a mobile vision clinic. We supply birthday cakes and free tennis shoes to every child under the age of thirteen in all ninety of our blocks and provide grocery gift cards to the homeless who come and work at our food banks.

When the We Love Our City, weloveourcity.org, community outreaches began at our church, we were serving several hundred underresourced people in different ways. After years of learning how to partner with different organizations, we now feed over twenty-five thousand people every month at our food banks in three different cities. Each one of these cities has a population of over one hundred thousand people. On a weekly basis we provide fresh produce to five underserved elementary schools in three cities with a total student population of over five thousand. We work in twenty-five different high-risk neighborhoods representing over ninety blocks on a weekly basis in five different cities. Not included in the twenty-five thousand people we feed at our three food banks are the people we feed every Saturday in five different cities of our Adopt a Block program. Over ninety blocks receive free food every Saturday, and I dont even know how many thousands that is because they do not sign government forms for the donated food, and we dont count; we just serve. We serve as the official graffiti abatement team for two cities and the Napa Valley, manage a community center that provides a free afterschool program and summer program in one of our at-risk neighborhoods. We have free mobile medical clinics and free bookmobiles that travel to those in need of these services. We recently converted what was known at city hall as the Ghetto Trail into a one-acre community garden in the most violent area of the city. We have a mobile hair salon, a mobile dental clinic, and a mobile vision clinic. We supply birthday cakes and free tennis shoes to every child under the age of thirteen in all ninety of our blocks and provide grocery gift cards to the homeless who come and work at our food banks.