Milford Church To Hold Dinner To Benefit CCS Utility Assistance Clients
Posted
Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
MILFORD - Milford First Brethren Church is reaching out to Combined Community Services clients.
The church will hold a beef-and-noodle dinner Oct. 16 from 5 to 8 p.m. at the church at the corner of Catherine and Henry streets, downtown Milford.
The dinner is to assist CCS with its utility assistance program.
The menu will include beef and noodles, green beans, mashed potatoes, applesauce and sheet cake. Beverages will include tea and lemonade.
The cost for adults is $6; children 6 to 10 years is $3; and children 5 and under eat for free.
Jim Strube, church member and event organizer, said the church works alongside CCS to serve its clients.
Strube said last August the church held a beef-and-noodle dinner to raise funds for the CCS Tools For School program when $300 was raised by the approximately 150 people who attended. The funds purchased supplies for students.
"The dinner is another tool we are using to help support CCS," Strube said.
The 100-member church also supports CCS's Project Independence program by raising funds for a single mother in Milford. The program assists women in obtaining an education.
There will be approximately 15 church members who will serve the dinner, and 100 percent of the proceeds raised from the dinner will go toward assisting CCS clients enrolled in its utility assistance program.
"We know with how the economy is that people will be hurting to pay their utility bills this year, and we felt we could encourage the community to help CCS," Strube said.
Sue Vanlaningham, Milford Brethren Church member, is coordinating the meal.
The church is purchasing the food supplies and paper products, and church members will make sheet cakes.
Peggi Lisenbee-Wright, CCS director of client assistance, said many families are on their last extension of unemployment and have not found work."Our goal is to assist the families who struggle from lifelong low-income issues as well as help families in this temporary employment crisis maintain its healthy living conditions," Lisenbee-Wright said.
The utility assistance program is made possible because of donations from individuals, churches and businesses. NIPSCO provides the Gift of of Warmth and matches dollars raised by the community.
The goal for the program this year is $40,000 and begins in December.
From Oct. 1, 2008, through Oct. 1 this year, CCS assisted with $254,281.46 in utility assistance, according to Lisenbee-Wright.
