34. A Small Church Making a Big Difference, with Cari Augusta

Cari Augusta is an elder at Westmorland Community Presbyterian Church, a small church in California’s agricultural Imperial Valley.  The town of Westmorland itself struggles with a lot of food insecurity (which happens when a family runs out of food before the next paycheck comes).  Last fall, this little church decided to do something about it.  Specifically, they started a food pantry that now serves over 100 of the 800 households in the town of Westmorland.

In this episode, Cari Augusta tells the story of how the Food Pantry got started and the impact it is having both in the community and on the church.
 

THIS EPISODE’S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

• Cari Augusta shares about her faith journey and what led her to Westmorland Community Presbyterian Church.
• The church has long known about the challenges of poverty in Westmorland.
• The first thing they tried was a health fair for the community.
• The church started thinking beyond the one hour of Sunday morning worship and began thinking about how else God might be calling them to serve their community.
• The Westmorland Community Food Pantry opened in November 2018, serving about 50 households per week. In May 2019, the Food Pantry serves over 100 households per week.
• Cari Augusta leads the Westmorland Stakeholders Group, which brings community-minded people in Westmorland together to discuss and imagine ways to help people in the community.
• The people who come to the Food Pantry for food are becoming friends.
• The goal of the Food Pantry is not to try to get people to show up to church; it is simply to bless and love our neighbors in Westmorland.
• The Food Pantry has stirred up a greater sense of family for the members of Westmorland Community Presbyterian Church.
• The next step is to try to address issues of drug addiction and mental health in Westmorland.

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS

• Westmorland Community Presbyterian Church 
  • Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Westmorland-Community-Presbyterian-Church-459506967580608/
  • Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/wcpreschurch/
• To donate to the Westmorland Community Food Pantry, send a check to: 
  • Westmorland Community Presbyterian Church
  • P.O. Box 668
  • Westmorland, CA  92281
• Make check out to:  WCPC 
  • Designate the check to: Food Pantry
• Flourish San Diego: 
  • Website:  https://flourishsandiego.org/

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