The Weekend Buddy Bags (WBB) program is one of our newest IPC Food Ministries delivering snack bags to local students. Thanks to ongoing support, we have doubled our efforts to provide 320 WBBs to students at Hayes K-8 School monthly. Please consider donating items for bags, finding a group to help pack a month of bags, or volunteering to deliver bags to Hayes on the first and third Fridays of the month.

IPC is committed to providing food for our Highland Park neighborhood! The Blessing Boxes outside Community Ministries offices provide a space for our neighbors to come to get necessary items like canned goods, hygiene products, and water. With a constant stream of neighbors from 10 am to 4 pm each weekday, we are able to provide for them through your generous donations of items. Donations, along with volunteers to help re-stock shelves, are needed and welcomed.

Kick off our annual Harvest for Hunger Campaign with a Crop Drop. At this family-friendly event, IPC volunteers of all ages gather to bag and distribute 33,000 pounds of potatoes to share with our larger Birmingham area community members who struggle with food insecurity. Join us for our annual Harvest for Hunger drive when we have a special call for members to bring food and hygiene items to the church. Pick up a Harvest for Hunger grocery sack at IPC each fall and return your filled bags for the Harvest for Hunger dedication and celebration.

Meals on Wheels depends on volunteers who are brought together by the need and desire to ensure the well-being of homebound seniors and disabled persons. Meals are picked up at United Way and delivered to homes in the Kingston neighborhood. IPC focuses a significant part of community outreach on this area, and volunteers find Meals on Wheels to be very worthwhile service. Please contact Susan Haskell at snhaskell@bellsouth.net for more information.

Since 2021, IPC’s Hunger and Food Insecurity Sub-committee has reimagined how we provide fresh, healthy produce for people struggling with food insecurity across greater Birmingham. Your generous financial contributions to Community Ministries/IPC Social Services now help to fund FREE Mobile Pop-Up Markets in five greater Birmingham neighborhoods each month, including Westminster Presbyterian Church. In partnership with P.E.E.R., Inc./East Lake Market, more than 600 families in each area of the city, including Hayes K-8 families, receive fresh and frozen vegetables, fruit, meat, and eggs each month. This is an exciting and welcomed change, and this revised food ministry has more than tripled IPC’s former efforts.

Each summer IPC schedules several days for gleaning with the Society of St. Andrew at Pepper Place Market. The produce gleaned is distributed to organizations that share food with people struggling with food access and insecurity.