Two food pantries operated by churches in the Classis will each receive $1,000 from Internet Archive Federal Credit Union. The projects, at Suydam Street Reformed Church, and at Second Reformed Church of New Brunswick, were selected to receive funds directed specifically to alleviating poverty in New Brunswick.
Jordon Modell, CEO of the credit union, met recently with Pastor Doug Shepler at Second Reformed, home to Five Loaves Food Pantry, to discuss common goals of their programs, including outreach to Spanish speakers, and the desire to serve under-documented residents of the community. As their conversation fluctuated easily between English and Spanish, it was clear that on matters of transforming the systems that perpetuate poverty into systems that cure individual and societal poverty, both men are speaking the same language.
The IAFCU, started in New Brunswick in 2012, is a nonprofit and a cooperative, helping low-income people establish credit, gain financial literacy, and build financial security. People of all income levels can grow their money there, and in doing so they offer a hand up to the poor in ways not happening at for-profit banks. Likewise at Five Loaves and at the Food Pantry at Suydam Street Reformed Church, programs that protect the dignity of the poor and offer them inclusion in community — person-to-person connection in the commandment to Love Thy Neighbor blesses the attempt to eradicate poverty.
Classis New Brunswick Community Development Corporation brought the efforts of the two food pantries to the attention of IAFCU. The CDC seeks to obtain funding for community services taking place in Reformed Churches throughout the Classis of New Brunswick.
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