COMMUNITY and WORLD OUTREACH
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Lutheran World Relief (LWR) is an international non-governmental organization that focuses on sustainable development projects and disaster relief and recovery. The organization was founded in 1945 to collect and send aid to people living in post-World War II Europe. Today, LWR helps communities living in extreme poverty adapt to the challenges that threaten their livelihoods and well-being, and responds to emergencies with a long-term view.
Unity has worked with LWR to provide Health Kits, Quilts, and School Kits that are shipped throughout the world.
The mission of the Triton Food Pantry is to provide a food resource for any enrolled UMSL student who is experiencing or is at risk of food insecurity or hunger. Unity collects weekly food donations for the pantry.
Feed My Starving Children is a Christian non-profit organization that coordinates the packaging and distribution of food to people in developing nations. Founded in 1987, it has reached out to more than 70 countries.
Unity participates each year in the packaging of food with both Atonement Lutheran Church and Good Shepard Lutheran Church in Manchester.
Humanitri is a local non-profit organization that operates within the St. Louis community to assist families in crisis. Our Transformational Housing Program focuses on teaching the skills needed to establish sustainable life change for our families so that they can understand the circumstances that brought them to us and work to end the cycle of poverty.
Unity collects monthly items to help families as they move into new homes
Brown Bag Meals
Single meals consist of a protein, snack, fruit, water, and a dessert. They are intended as a single meal that does not require preparation. They can be picked up at church but many families keep them in their car and hand out to needy individuals in the St. Louis area.
Malaria Nets and Greeting Cards
According to the latest World malaria report, released on 30 November 2020, there were 229 million cases of malaria in 2019 compared to 228 million cases in 2018. The estimated number of malaria deaths stood at 409 000 in 2019, compared with 411 000 deaths in 2018. The WHO African Region continues to carry a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. In 2019, the region was home to 94% of all malaria cases and deaths. I
Handmade greeting cards are sold monthly to help purchase malaria nets for third world countries. These beautiful cards are designed and created by a talented Unity member, April Webb
Fair Trade Coffee
Fair trade coffee is coffee that is certified as having been produced to fair trade standards by fair trade organizations, which create trading partnerships that are based on dialogue, transparency and respect, with the goal of achieving greater equity in international trade. These partnerships contribute to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to coffee bean farmers. Fair trade organizations support producers and sustainable environmental farming practices and prohibit child labor or physical forced labor.
Unity has provided fair trade products for the last 10 years and ranks as one of the top five sellers in the country.
Unity Lutheran has partnered with The University of Missouri Music Department for the past several years to host student recitals and faculty concerts which are open to the public.
ELCA Youth Gathering July 24-28, 2002
Minneapolis Minnesota
This is Christ’s church. There is a place for you here. We are the church that shares a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. Liberated by our faith, we embrace you as a whole person–questions, complexities and all.
The ELCA Youth Gathering is a national convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for high-school-age youth. It is held every 3 years in a different American city. The gathering lasts around 5 days and each day is focused on a form of service. Each convention also has a central theme to it. Each theme is focused on a certain scripture from the bible.
Unity youth will be partnering with Bethel Lutheran Church in University City to prepare for the Gathering this year.
God’s Helping Hand
Unity’s involvement in The Ville neighborhood of St. Louis began decades ago with Unity’s annual financial support for Immanuel Lutheran, an inner ring congregation of St. Louis. Later God’s Helping Hand with its outreach coordinator Janis Hutchinson began it’s work in connection with Immanuel Lutheran, offering Sunday breakfasts to neighborhood residents. When Immanuel Lutheran closed, St. Philip’s Lutheran Church ELCA took up the mantle providing facilities for the breakfast program of God’s Helping Hand. Responding to the needs of residents, God’s Helping Hand provides on-going support through its Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter collections and distributions to residents. Summer and winter clothes drives were added to the breakfast program, a Juneteenth celebration and a Vacation Bible School program in the summer provided instruction and supplies needed for beginning the regular school year in the fall.
As the outreach grew, God’s Helping Hand partnered with Antioch Baptist Church (just across the street from St. Philip’s Lutheran) which offered the use of its facilities. Antioch Baptist Church and Antioch in the Ville Community Development Association collaborate with God’s Helping Hand in a number of exciting projects. Currently a three-year grant from the Evangelical Lutheran Church is addressing food access needs in The Ville. In the first year, a kitchen at Antioch Baptist will be remodeled and upgraded as a Commissary Kitchen. Area vendors will be engaged to prepare food for distribution and sale in The Ville. In the following two years a community garden will be developed at Antioch Baptist providing fresh vegetables to the historic Ville neighborhood.