Lois Hines (right) and Jennifer Crane Pyle gleaning carrots for local food banks

On Friday of Annual Conference 2013, hundreds of United Methodists took part in the Conference's Change the World Events.  Over 30 of these volunteers went to two local farm/garden sites to work with Community Harvest: "a regional gleaning project in the greater Wenatchee Valley [that]... helps farmers manage excess, un-marketable products and makes that gleaned produce accessible to the local community through the region's existing emergency food providers."  UM volunteers not only gleaned (in good biblical fashion) healthy, beautiful produce for local food b

anks, some actually helped to prepare new garden/farm space for future food-bank gardens.  

 

Please click on this logo to download USDA's "Let's Glean!" toolkit

• Moscow: Backyard Harvest 
• Statewide: Idaho Community Gardens 

• Southern OR: The Gleaning Network of Southern OR 
• Statewide: Oregon Food Bank  

• Chelan County/North Central Washington: Community Farm Connection   
• Pierce County: Emergency Food Network  
• Puget Sound area: Evergreen Food Goods Rescue 
• Snohomish County: Cascade Gleaning Association 
• Spokane County: Second Harvest 
• Whatcom County: Small Potatoes Gleaning Project 

In their 2009 pastoral letter, "God's Renewed Creation," the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church pledged, "to measure the 'carbon footprint' of our episcopal and denominational offices, determine how to reduce it, and implement those changes. We will urge our congregations, schools, and settings of ministry to do the same." By "carbon footprint," the Bishops were referring to "an estimate of how much carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) is produced to support life activities, including travel and home energy use"; they knew that the greater an individual or institution's "footprint," the greater the negative impact on every life system connected to God's intricate climate systems, especially the poorest of the poor - the poor who contribute the least to this global crisis and bear the greatest hardship for it.   

At Annual Conference 2012, we (the PNW Office of Connectional Ministries) launched our own "Climate Justice Ministries" initiative to encourage and equip congregations to take a "snapshot" of their carbon footprints (whether through a calculator or energy audit). Then, based on this snapshot, each congregation would prioritize at least 3 actions to reduce their carbon footprint in the coming year.

At Annual Conference 2013, we announced and celebrated the first five of our Conference's "Climate Justice Ministries" recipients.  Here is a very quick (and very incomplete) sample of their inspiring, climate justice effort:  

Fairwood Community UMC (Renton, WA)

• Replaced all clear windows with energy-efficient, dual-pane windows

• Replaced old refrigerator with a more energy-efficient model

• Replaced 50 incandescent lights with LED bulbs (which use about 1/10th the wattage)

• Discontinued use of energy-inefficient pop machine

• Purchased $76/month of green energy from local utility (PSE) to offset their electric use (this is equal to planting 1,750 trees and offsetting 91,093 lbs of C02)

• Host an annual "Hike-Bike-Carpool Sunday"  

• Restoring 3.5 acres of forest/trees and wetland area

•  Named by Earth Ministry as a Greening Congregation  

Federal Way UMC (Auburn, WA)  

• Retrofitted lights in the "old wing" of the church to up-to-date energy-efficient bulbs; This involved changing the lamps (and ballasts) in 51 two lamp fixtures and 20 four lamp fixtures for a total of 182 lamps; this will save 4597 kWh per year
• Brought in a recycling expert from the city of Federal Way to help build the church's recycling and composting program
• Providing financial assistance through local utilities to people in the community who are in danger of having their power or water shut off 

Haller Lake UMC (Seattle, WA)

• Tabulated church electrical and gas heating energy billings for the two previous years for Carbon Footprint calculations  
•  Attended the Shoreline Solarfest at Shoreline Community College to preview solar electric power feasibility
• Met with the Director of the Northwest Stream Foundation to verify the safest approach to moss control on the church grounds  
• Hosted a luncheon with Earth Ministry centered around coal export issues

• Organized and led a beach clean-up at Camp Indianola

• Purchased and installed an energy-efficient kitchen range, washing machine, and clothes dryer in the parsonage as replacements were needed

• Purchased and installed energy-efficient lighting fixtures and ballasts in all offices and meeting areas within the main church facility, as well as the Youth Center building 

• Purchased and installed LED "EXIT" signs  

• Purchased, installed, and provided education for the use of two sets of commercial-grade interior recycling and compost containers  

• Regular participants in Seattle's "Adopt-a-Street" program in a heavily-used, urban area 

Liberty Park UMC (Spokane, WA)

•  Helped to found the Spokane Alliance, which created the SustainableWorks program -- now a statewide program "pioneering residential neighborhood-based, large scale energy efficiency"
• Engaged in a program to do energy retrofits to cut costs and increase efficiencies -- a program in which they went door-to door, neighborhood-by- neighborhood to sign up neighbors for energy audits
• Had building audited and, as a result, replaced their old, inefficient gas furnace; their new, highly efficient gas units -- plus the use of four "heating zones" --  have freed up precious monies for ministry and cut their energy usage in half  
• Created a community, front-yard garden at the parsonage and associated composting  

Wesley UMC of Yakima (WA)

• First church in the Conference to install solar panels 

• Hosts the the largest community recycling center in Yakima County -- a program that collects 60,000 pounds of recycleables per monthOrganic Church Garden: produce raised approximately $500 for Solar Project and Noah's Ark; excess veggies donated to NW Harvest

• Hosted a "Green Education Series"

• Created a water-efficient, drip-irrigation system for the church vegetable garden
• Named by Earth Ministry as a Greening Congregation