Who we are -- What we do

The Peace and Justice committee has a speakers bureau - committee members and MCC staff are available for teaching, preaching, and for conversation about our work together. Please contact us if you would like help finding resources or a speaker for Sunday worship, a Sunday School class, or other church group. (See more details here)

Food Programs

• Grocery Bag Program: Collects grocery donations every winter for families in need in Philadelphia and New York City. In February 2007, 725 bags of groceries were collected for distribution to Brooklyn, Bronx, and Philadelphia under the leadership of Mary Keller and Judy Francis. This program changed in 2008 -- now individual congregations which would like to provide bags of groceries will be matched with specific urban churches or organizations in need of food.
  See Grocery Bag program or contact the MCC Material Resource Center in Ephrata at 717-733-2847 for more details.
• MCC Meat Canner: Each spring we host the MCC meat canner usually for two or three days (last year canning only pork). In 2009, about 14,000 cans of pork were filled -- enough for about 140,000 meals, and some additional meat was donated to local outreach programs, including Graterford Prison Ministry. The MCC Meat Canner was at at Christopher Dock on March 30-April 1, 2009 (Mon.-Wed), but will not return to the area until spring 2011. The facilities at Christopher Dock are no longer adequate to host the canner, so the canning operation will be moving to the MCC Material Resource Center in Harleysville in the spring of 2011. (Volunteers may schedule work times through the Conference office, 267-932-6050.) For further information, contact us:
  Program coordinator: Abe Landes, 215-723-3140.
• Vegetable Basket Program: Donated fruits and vegetables are collected from local farmers and gardners, each year in coordination with with the Food Trust, a Philadelphia based non-profit organization which sets up farmers markets and negotiates with grocery chains to serve low-income communities. The program has delivered an abundance of fresh produce to several agencies that serve low-income people:
  Cornucopia Food Cupboard in North Wales;
  Emmanuel Evangelical Congregational Church in Hatfield;
  Hatfield Church of the Brethren, Hatfield;
  Keystone Opportunity Center, Souderton;
  Manna on Main Street in Lansdale, and
  the Shepherd's Shelf in Kulpsville,
  
  In years with a good growing season, volunteers have processed and distributed over 10,000 lbs. of donated produce.

  The Vegetable Basket Project collects fruit and vegetables (from mid-July until early October). Drop off your produce on Monday mornings before 9:00 a.m. at any of the designated pickup locations:

  • Care & Share Thrift Shoppe, 783 Route 113, Souderton, PA
    (drop off produce at the side door facing Route 113)
  • Deep Run East Mennonite Church, 350 Kellers Church Road, Perkasie, PA
  • Blooming Glen Creamery Apartments, Route 113, Blooming Glen, PA
  • Mennonite Conference Center, 529 Yoder Road, Harleysville, PA
  • Indian Valley Mennonite Church, 190 Maple Avenue, Harleysville, PA
  • Plains Mennonite Church, 50 Orvilla Road, Hatfield, PA 19440
  • Lamb Foundation (Cornucopia Cupboard), 114 N. Main Street, North Wales, PA

  The summer of 2009 brought us an abundant growing season, and we are pleased to be working with the Food Trust again this year. For more information, see www.nutritioncoalition.org or contact Moriah Zimmerman: 215-575-0444, or Bob Moyer 215-766-0825.

Peace and Justice Education

The PJC also has been represented on the Boards of the Montgomery County Mediation Center which provides mediation services and intensive mediation training and Crossroads Community Center in Philadelphia.

From time to time the PJC also plans or co-sponsors other projects and programs, including a Peace & Justice Fall Gathering for local church representatives (October 16, 2010 at Oxford Circle Mennonite Church), and the 51st annual Christmas Peace Pilgrimage from Nazareth to Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) on Dec. 11th, 2010.

We sometimes work directly with people in our local congregations to identify or provide peace resources, lead workshops, or arrange programs on current peace and justice topics. (See more information here).

Many of our congregations have given attention to youth and the military in response to the U.S. military buildup and intensive armed forces recruiting that began after 9/11/2001. We have periodically hosted workshops on on military, draft, and voluntary service options conscientious objection (such as "Why Object" , in March 2007; and "Was Jesus a Conscientous Objector?" in April 2009) for youth, parents, and youth leaders.

We have also sponsored pastor's workshops on "preaching peace" and "keeping the faith during election times" and "pastoral care for people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)".

Who we are

Community-Based Peace Resources in Pennsylvania:

• Bucks County:
  
  • Peace-Talks On Line (www.peacetalksonline.org)
    project of Newtown Meeting, PO Box 224, Newtown PA 18940
  • Langhorne Peace Center (www.thepeacecenter.org)
    Contact Christa Tinari, ctinari@snip.net, or 609-397-7290.
• Chester County:
  
  • The Peace Center at Birmingham (peacecenterbirmingham.org)
    a peace garden and display, project of Birmingham Meeting,1245 South Birmingham Rd., West Chester PA 19382
• Delaware County:
  • Peace Center of Delaware County (www.delcopeacecenter.org)
  • Delco Wage Peace & Justice (www.delcowagepeacejustice.org)
• Lehigh Valley: (Lehigh and Northampton Counties)
  
  • LEPOCO Peace Center (www.lepoco.org)
    In the Lehigh Valley the LEPOCO (Lehigh Pocono Committee of Concern), Peace Center publishes a monthly newsletter, and sends out an email calendar of events. Nancy Tate, Director. Email: lepoco@fast.net, 313 W. 4th Street, Bethlehem 18015 610-691-8730.
• Montgomery County:
  
  • Bellefonte: CenterPeace (www.centrepeace.org)
• Philadelphia and vicinity:
  
  • Brandywine Peace Community (www.brandywinepeace.com)
  • Shalom Center (www.shalomctr.org)
  • Peace and Concerns (www.pym.org/peace-and-concerns) Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Quaker), Peace and Concerns Committee -- includes events calendar
• West Chester:
  
  • Chester County Peace Movement (www.ccpeace.org)
• Wilkes Barre:
  • Peace and Justice Center (peaceandjusticecenter.com)
• Princeton, NJ and Southeastern PA:
  • Coalition for Peace Action (www.peacecoalition.org)

• There is an Email calendar for Bucks and Montgomery counties which includes peace-related events. Contact Tom Ulrich, tomulrich@mybluelight.com.
• In central Pennsylvania, there is an Email "Peace and Justice Calendar" for the Harrisburg, PA area which includes some events of regional interest: Contact Darrel & Kirsten Reinford, kirstendarrel@pa.net.