College Community Church Mennonite Brethren

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Write to Your Representative

We encourage you to write a note to your representative in support of the hungry or those at risk of hunger in our society.   Feel free to use the arguments below when you write on your cards or letters.  Please include your name and address on any communication.  

 

To our local representatives write...

County Supervisors (Susan Anderson, Bullard, Bob Waterstone, Clovis; Henry Perea, South Fresno;  

Fresno City Council members: Blong Xiong, Brian Calhoun, Cynthia Sterling, Paul Caprioglio, Mike Dages, Jerry Duncan, Henry T. Perea. or the mayor-elect Ashley Swearengin:

Need: Brookings Institute shows Fresno has the nation’s highest concentration of poverty at 43.5% compared to a national average of 10%. Immigration has increased sixfold in the area.  

Action: We need to help Fresno’s hungry by providing 1. ensure year round access to food for children and adults, 2. space for community gardens, , and 3. by integrating upper and lower income housing.

 

Below example text to Fresno City Council Members:

 

Dear Brian Calhoun,

Please make sure to support excellent sites and support people to grow their own food in local gardens. Recently, rich land where Hmong immigrants grew vegetables for years is now to become a Fresno City police substation.  Please either select a different plot of land for the substation or provide an equally rich plot of land with the proper water resources in the same area.  At least provide a part of the land designed for a substation to be also be used as a garden.  Sincerely, Spiderman

 

To our national representatives write....

President-Elect Obama, Senators Boxer and Feinstein, Congressmen, Radanovich, Costa, Nunes

The United States is not on track to meet the goals and fulfill the promises our country has made to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are a set of eight achievable objectives adopted by the nations of the world in 2000 to improve the quality of life of hundreds of millions of poor people around the world. All nations promised to fulfill these goals by 2015.   We must also improve the way U.S. assistance is packaged and delivered so that it reaches those in greatest need with the maximum impact.  

Federal Government & Congress should increase its funding for poverty-fighting efforts by at least $5 billion a year, starting this coming year.  That equals the cost of the U. S. Military for 3 days or less than 1% of the $700 billion  we are spending to bailout financial institutions. Funding should be aimed at programs that most directly address the root causes of poverty and hunger.  The programs should encourage the participation of citizens from the targeted communities in crafting programs and setting priorities.

 

A first step would be to pass the Global Poverty Act (S. 2433), now in Congress. It would:

    *  Make the first Millennium Development Goal (to cut in half the number of people who are hungry and the number of people living on less than $1 a day) an official part of U.S. policy.
    *  Require a coordinated strategy to achieve this goal through U.S. aid, debt relief, and trade policies. The strategy would emphasize cooperation with other countries, international institutions, faith-based groups, and the private sector.

 
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Jesus calls the church to reach beyond its own walls and share the gospel through action and word. At College Community Church many people are involved in local and international outreach. The Outreach Commission encourages and helps organize these efforts by:

* maintaining active links with agencies and organizations which are important to the life, ministries, vision and goals of the congregation
* establishing and maintaining links with those of our congregation who serve with mission or service organizations
* encouraging participation of members of the congregation in voluntary and professional service opportunities
* organizing appropriate opportunities for the mutual sharing and explanation of ministries as well as by interfacing with the education commissions