Twelve Corners Presbyterian Church teams up with Brighton Food Cupboard at the Farmer’s Market.

Posted by [email protected] | Sep 24, 2021 | Social Issues | 0 |

Twelve Corners Presbyterian Church; 1200 South Winton Road; Rochester, NY 14618; Food Cupboard Collection Mission; (first row) Bill Brewer, Elder, Wendy Yeun, Music Director; (second row) Ron Little, Elder, Emily Hammonds, Deacon, Sandy Brewer, Mission Team and Women’s Association, Tom Upson, Mission Coordinator. Photo: David Kramer, 8/29/21

By Sandy Brewer – Mission Team

For almost 75 years, Twelve Corners Presbyterian Church has been involved in community mission projects.

During the last 20 years, the church has collected food for the Food Cupboard and delivered items monthly to the Food Cupboard’s different locations, first at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Westminster Road at East Avenue, then at two successive locations in Brighton after Jewish Family Services took over responsibility for the Food Cupboard. Currently, the Brighton Food Cupboard is located in the former Brookside School at 220 Idlewood Road in Brighton.

Twelve Corners Presbyterian Church [Photos: David Kramer 9/24/21]

We have seen the growth of the Food Cupboard as it meets the needs of families, from children to elderly, who need products like Ensure. We are grateful for the holiday baskets that they deliver to needy families and that they serve the year-round food needs of four ZIP Codes in the area of Brighton and southeast Rochester. Social worker Esti Kilimnick directs the Brighton Food Cupboard and works with new clients. Esti obtains grants to help the Food Cupboard with new equipment, such as scales to weigh donations and coolers to keep perishable items.

Tom Upson at the Brighton Farmer’s Market [Photo: David Kramer, 9/19/21] See The Brighton Farmer’s Market is back.

Our church Mission Team decided to participate in new ways of helping the Food Cupboard this summer. Gail Henry, a Brighton resident, suggested holding a drive-up drop off collection of food for the Food Cupboard. Tom Upson, another Brighton resident, is Chair of the Mission Team at Twelve Corners Presbyterian Church. The team encouraged donors via internet postings, fliers, personal calls, messages on the Brighton Fire Department sign at Twelve Corners and signs on the church lawn. The team also handed out thank-you cards to each donor. Volunteers from the church and community accepted donations. These drop-off collections at the church received donations of non-perishable food, healthy snacks for children and household necessities. The results of these collections are: June – 575 pounds, July – 460 pounds, August – 811 pounds, for a total of 1,846 pounds donated.

Now, church members are sitting with other volunteers from 9 AM to 1 PM at the Brighton Farmers’ Market to collect non-perishable food donations, healthy snacks for children and monetary donations. People and vendors also donate fresh vegetables. The donations are taken to the Brighton Food Cupboard after the close of the Farmers’ Market so volunteers on Monday can get them ready for delivery to the needy clients.

On Monday, August 30, TCPC Volunteers Tom Upson, Bill Brewer and Sandy Brewer transport food from TCPC to the Brighton Food Cupboard. They are met by Julie at the Brighton Food Cupboard and bring the collected items into the Food Cupboard. [Photos: Bill Brewer and Tom Upson]

Church members are happy to be part of meeting the needs of Brighton and Rochester residents. Have you seen the Brighton Food Cupboard collection boxes in stores such as Eleventh Hour or Cook’s World on Monroe Avenue? We have several boxes at Twelve Corners Presbyterian Church to collect food from people who use our building for special events. Please use our church drive-up collections and our joint collection on Sundays at the Farmers’ Market near the food trucks and the High School, or the collection boxes at area stores

Twelve Corners Presbyterian Church. Bill Brewer and Norma McLernon at the August 29th Donation event [Photos: Tom Upson]

The Brighton Rotary Club holds pancake breakfast events to raise money for the Food Cupboard and other worthy causes. The Scouts, BSA, and Cub Scouts collect food for needy families also. Brighton has amazing and thoughtful residents, as well as contributors from the southeast area of Rochester. We are grateful to David Kramer for photo coverage of our August event and his interest in learning more about our mission connection with the Brighton Farmers’ Market and supporting needy persons in the community.

OTHER CUPBOARDS

The South Wedge Food Program helps people through the pandemic and beyond

The New Life Food Cupboard on Monroe Avenue at Temple Beth Sholom is still open!

ON THE BRIGHTON FARMER’S MARKET

The Brighton Farmer’s Market is back. At the Game at the Corners, the boys and girls of summer hoping to play ball.

About The Author

[email protected]

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones. So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.