We, as a church community, recognize that there is much work to do in God’s beautiful and broken world. We, as children of God, recognize we all have gifts to share and a call to use them with purpose.
If you are interested in answering God’s call and living with purpose, please join us by reaching out to the contact for any of the programs below.
Inspired to help in the face of pandemic-fueled need in 2020, a small army of volunteers, led by Gary Arthur, created Village Table. Led by a core team of organizers, Village Table welcomes new volunteers from Wellesley, neighboring towns, and Wellesley Village Church. Every other week, we meet in the kitchen at Wellesley Village Church to cook high-quality, nutritious meals. More than 600 meals a month are individually packaged and delivered to those in need via our much loved partner organizations:
Hoops and Homework, Framingham
Wellesley Food Pantry, Wellesley
Community Fridges: Brighton/Allston, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale & Watertown
Shannon Kelly: “What Village Table Taught Me”
I want to donate to Village Table!
Wellesley Village Church joins with other area congregations to provide meals and hospitality to families who are offered shelter at the Family Promise Metrowest Center in Natick . Volunteers serve as cooks, dinner hosts, childcare helpers, food shoppers, and tutors. They also help with moving, fundraising, outreach, administrative tasks, and more. In 2003, led by Village Church members, 12 local churches rallied together to provide struggling Metrowest families nourishment and shelter on church premises, one week at a time, on a quarterly basis. Today, Family Promise also helps families find housing before eviction.
Village Church volunteers of all ages travel each spring to Quito and Latacunga to serve and nurture infants and children and their caretakers at For His Children, a home for children who have been abandoned, abused, or neglected. Adults and youth help with daily care and feeding, initiate games and play, and assist with construction and maintenance projects. For His Children, a beloved partner of Village Church for over two decades, strives to find adoptive homes for the children and advocates on their behalf.
Each year during the April school break, members of the confirmation class (9th grade) and the high school youth group (10th-12th grade) participate in a week of service, sometimes in the Pacific Northwest or the Southwest. Last year, more than 50 youth journeyed to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to learn from and serve alongside Pueblo communities.
Village Church volunteers create and serve Sunday dinner once a month at Rosie’s Place, a Boston shelter for women in crisis. Volunteers deliver food to Bristol Lodge Men’s Shelter in Waltham the first Friday of each month.
We package thousands of meals in partnership with The Outreach Program, a nonprofit organization that hosts large food-packaging events to provide easy-to-prepare meals for hungry individuals and families. We call this event the “Feeding Frenzy.” It is a fun and family-friendly opportunity to put our hands to work in helping to feed people throughout New England.
Located in Framingham, Hoops and Homework is a nonprofit organization that nurtures low-income families with needed after-school support, homework help, and recreational activities. There are two ways to support this ministry: (1) Each August, Village Church members are invited to purchase a backpack for a child, along with school supplies. It is a rewarding service opportunity, particularly when we receive photos of the students with their brand new backpacks. (2) As Christmas nears, Village Church sets up a tree – but instead of ornaments, we adorn the tree with notecards listing items that children hope Santa might bring for them. Members are invited to take a notecard and purchase a gift for a specific child. A few days before Christmas, volunteers wrap the presents and deliver them to Hoops and Homework.
Pathway to Possible, formerly the Newton Weston Wellesley Committee for Community Living, maintains several group homes for adults with developmental disabilities in the Boston metrowest, including in Wellesley, where Village Church members have shared monthly ecumenical fellowship dinners and social activities with residents.
Village Church shares the commitment to encourage independent living for these adults to provide housing, support, and advocacy while providing opportunities that enrich their lives and their communities.
