Fabulous! Food Warmer! Finally! Hosanna!

Here is our cook, Ed Johnson, standing beside our brand new food warmer that was delivered this morning. The food warmer is not even yet out of its wrapping. This will be a wonderful improvement for our food service here at the church.

One of the issues when preparing a large number of meals to be delivered in a small window of time is to keep the food at a proper temperature - warm or cold. What the food warmer allows us to do is to cook warm food and to transfer it into the warmer where it can be kept at a constant temperature. If you look at the bottom you can see dials that allow picking a particular temperature. This is a commercial quality warmer that has a glass front so we can see what is inside without opening the door, and it is of a standard size so commercial sized pans fit exactly on the many racks. What a blessing!

The money for this warmer was given by the Community Foundation of the Great River Bend. We had applied first to a national program to benefit food providers to children. When we were not selected for that grant the Community Foundation stepped in and made a grant very promptly. We are so grateful. And this piece of equipment is expensive. What a big help for hungry children in Rock Island.

Good day!

Bike Rack Needed

When Rock Island Parks and Recreation decided to have one of their three Summer Day Camp sites at the Academy, our neighborhood school, right down the street, we figured there was not really much need to have a meal site here at the church. Who knew? We have been averaging between 40 and 50 children at lunch daily!



And this is in addition to the over 100 meals we cater to the children at the Academy, daily, for lunch!


I had been running and errand, and when I entered the church building today about 12:15 pm this is the sight that greeted me just outside the door. And when I walked down the stairs toward the Fellowship Hall, where meals are served, I encountered bicycles inside the building too. The bottom photo.




Clearly, we need a bike rack so that bicycles can be parked neatly and safely.

This would also be a real help for the ESL program. Some of our adult students ride to the church on a bicycle. And a bike rack would be where some of the strollers that the young moms use to bring their children could be locked safely.

If you have an inside track on a bike rack let me know.

Non-Discrimination Policy

On Sunday, June 26, 2011, at our regular June Congregational Meeting the Church of Peace United Church of Christ of Rock Island, Illinois, adopted a non-discrimination policy. This policy does not really represent new thinking at the church, but rather puts it into words suitable for posting for anyone who would want to know about who is eligible for the programs and services of the church. It reads:

The Church of Peace does not discriminate or refuse to offer programs or services to persons on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or disability."

And they're off....

Monday, June 6, was the first day of the Summer Meals Program here at the Church of Peace United Church of Christ in Rock Island. It always begins a little slowly. We had about 16 children arrive for breakfast and over 30 children eat lunch. And in addition to the children who come to our church building for meals we deliver meals to various summer programs for children around Rock Island. And we have a satellite site this year at Hope United Church of Christ in Moline, Illinois, and they are delivering meals to similar programs in Moline. We estimate that we served over 600 children's meals per day in this our first week!

This is particularly exciting when we consider our history. The first year we provided meals for children in the summer time was 2004; and we served 440 meals in the entire summer. Here is the history of the year and number of meals:

• 2004 - 440



• 2005 - 812



• 2006 - 2517



• 2007 - 3412



• 2008 - 11529



• 2009 - 13089



• 2010 - 15388

Please keep us in your prayers!