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In late July and early August, we will collect supplies for West Tampa Elementary teachers including printer paper, large hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes, quart and gallon Ziplock bags, paper towels, and plastic page covers. Children will collect Crayola crayons, markers, and pencils, glue sticks, post it notes and other items from the child supply list.
In June, we collected underwear in the Clothes to Kids “Drop Off Your Drawers” collection. Clothes to Kids provides items of clothing for school age children. Each shopper gets 5 new sets of underwear and 5 new pairs of socks in addition to the rest of their wardrobe which they pick from donated clothing.
One of our ongoing projects is making and selling Manna bags. Manna bags are filled with items for homeless people as well as a flyer with resources available to them. You may add a dollar or two before you hand them to someone on the street who is requesting help. These bags are on sale on Sunday morning. Even if you do not attend services, we will be glad to sell one to you following our service, around 11 am. The bags sell for $4.00 and our subsidized by a special mission fund.
Teaming with the various mission efforts available through HPPC is a great way to make friends while serving Christ and helping others. Anyone is invited to join a service team. Regular projects include collections of diapers for migrant workers, underwear and socks for Clothes to Kids, food for End 68 Hours of Hunger, and gifts and food for needy children during Advent. If you wish to help, please email hppcmissions@gmail.com or call the church office.
A partnership with Thornwell’s Building Families program helps us serve the community and families in transition. Our building serves as “home base” for a specially trained social worker who provides services to families who are struggling; folks like grandparents as parents, children in families involved in divorce, or children in a newly blended family are some examples.
We host the largest pantry and packing facility for End 68 Hours of Hunger, Tampa. In May 2024, the organization was serving nearly 900 students and their families in our community. Teams of volunteers assemble bags containing food for children whose families are food insecure. Social workers in the more than 30 schools where the program operates identify children who may not eat during the weekend without our help. Each weekend, these families receive food to help feed them during the nearly 68 hours between free school meals. The program has no employees and is supported completely by volunteers. We can always use volunteers to donate food or to help in the packing and distribution of the food. Click here for more information about this. In addition to the pantry located in our facility, there are pantries in Plant High, and Mitchell, Bellamy, Oak Park and Mendenhall Elementaries.
Members also support, with their offerings, charities that focus on providing basic needs to people who need a hand up. These include Faith Cafe, Metropolitan Ministries, BethEl Mission, Meals on Wheels, Feeding America Tampa Bay and Judeo Christian Health Clinic. For the past seven years, we have supported a nursing student in Haiti through Haiti Nursing Foundation
If you have any questions, or would like more information about any of these mission opportunities, please send an email to: hppcmissions@gmail.com