Contents: About the Peace & Justice Committee

• Overview – What we do
    – Food Programs
    – Vegetable Basket Project
    – Peace and Justice Education
• Who we are
• Peace Resources
• Contact Us

About Us – A Brief Overview

We are a joint conference committee, with financial support from both Franconia Mennonite Conference and Eastern District Conference (member conferences of Mennonite Church USA). Our dual-conference relationship has emerged over a period of several years, beginning about 2000.
Most of the churches of both Eastern District Conference and Franconia Mennonite Conference are located in the eastern half of Pennsylvania, and our two conferences share office facilities in Harleysville, Pa.

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

The Peace and Justice Committee PJC provides general oversight for three food programs, each of which have their own coordinators and volunteer staff:

• 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. 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 Christopher Dock until 2009, but in 2010 the facilities at Christopher Dock were longer adequate to host the canner, so in 2011 the canning operation has moved to the MCC Material Resource Center in Harleysville.
  (Volunteers may schedule work times through the Material Resource Center 267-203-8074.) For further information, contact the 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 Philabundance and 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:
  Bethlehem Baptist Church, Spring House, PA;
  Lamb Foundation, 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 at any of the designated pickup locations (beginning July 6, 2015):

  Drop off Mondays by 9:00 am:
  • Care & Share Thrift Shoppe, 783 Route 113, Souderton, PA
    (drop off produce at the side covered porch, Furniture Shoppe)
  • Deep Run East Mennonite Church, 350 Kellers Church Road, Perkasie, PA

  Drop off Mondays by 11:00 am:

  • Indian Valley Faith Fellowship, 190 Maple Avenue, Harleysville, PA
    

  Drop off Monday through Saturday 10 am — 6 pm:

  • Lamb Foundation (Cornucopia Cupboard), 114 N. Main Street, North Wales, PA

  Drop off Monday through Saturday 9 am — 6 pm:

  • Manna on Main Street, 713 W. Main St., North Wales, PA

  Past summers have brought us abundant harvests, and we are pleased to be working with Philabundance this year.

  Note: The final collection date (which depends on weather) will be announced later.
  September 24 was the last collection day for 2012.

  For details, download this printable Vegetable Basket flyer , or for more information, contact Bob Moyer 215-766-0825.
  This year the program is coordinated by Lindsey Ricker of Philabundance.
  

Peace and Justice Education

Winter Peace Retreat for adults and children. This annual retreat has been planned and hosted for over 40 years by the PJC. For several years this gathering has been held on the second weekend of February at Spruce Lake Retreat in the Pocono mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. ( See announcement of the February 8-10, 2013 retreat, or the next retreat February 7-9, 2014.)

In years past, the PJC has also been represented on the Boards of the Montgomery Conflict 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 an annual Peace & Justice Fall Gathering for local church representatives, and the 54th annual Christmas Peace Pilgrimage from Nazareth to Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) on Dec. 14th, 2013.

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 several pastors and leaders seminars on topics such as “preaching peace”, “pastoral care for traumatized people”, and “our immigrant neighbors”.

Who we are

Current members of the Peace and Justice Committee are:

Peace Resources

Here are a few links from our Peace Resource pages:

• “Alternative” Gift Sources
• Peace Sunday Resources
• Pennsylvania Peace Resource Centers
• National / International Peace & Justice Organizations
• Mennonite Peace & Justice Resources
• More Peace & Justice Links
• EDC/FMC Peace Year 2012
• Mennonite Church USA: the website of the Peace and Justice Support Network (PJSN) includes resources for worship, reflection, and public policy advocacy on Peace and Justice issues. peace.mennolink.org

(If you do not find what you are looking for, please contact us).

Contact the Peace and Justice Committee

For further information about the PJC or any of the activities listed here, please contact us.

We welcome opportunities to work together with other Mennonite peace committees on issues of mutual concern.
Also see the Peace Resource page for other Peace and Justice resources.