by Tori Paquette ’20

The Waterville area is home to a remarkable number of faith-based organizations engaged in sustained poverty relief efforts. While most American congregations engage in some form of social service, sociologist Mark Chaves found that they only devote an average of $1,200 to these efforts annually and typically focus on one-time events. Waterville’s churches and synagogue collectively devote tens of thousands of dollars and dozens of volunteers to addressing persistent local needs. The Evening Sandwich Program at the Unitarian Universalist Church, for example, serves dinner six days a week and provided nearly 53,000 meals in 2018, amounting to over $20,000 worth of food. The Saturday Sandwich Program at First Baptist Church distributed an additional 1,674 meals. This year, the Interfaith Resource Fund provided over $19,441 to community members in need. These numbers are astonishing, not only because they reflect the level of need in our community, but also the commitment of community members to meeting those needs.

Faith-Based Programs in Waterville

• Food. In addition to the Sandwich Programs, Sacred Heart parish runs a soup kitchen every weekday and Pleasant Street United Methodist Church hosts the Waterville Food Bank, open four days a week. The Interfaith Council of Waterville & Winslow coordinates volunteers from several congregations for the Evening Sandwich Program and supports an additional soup kitchen during the month of July, when Sacred Heart’s soup kitchen is closed. 
• Necessary Items. The Essentials Closet at the Waterville United Church of Christ distributes free necessities like deodorant, toilet paper, and laundry detergent. The Waterville UCC also runs the Laundry Quarters program, which sends volunteers to a local laundromat to give quarters to people who struggle to pay for a load of laundry. Centerpoint Community Church fills about 150 Thanksgiving baskets for local families in need. The Least of These ministry at Oakland’s Kingdom Life Church hands out backpacks full of useful items to the local homeless population and stocks public schools with feminine hygiene items. 
• Emergency Funds. Waterville and Winslow residents turn to the Interfaith Resource Fund for help to pay heating bills in the winter, repair their cars so they can get to work, or put down a security deposit on an apartment. Individuals can access this fund once a year and receive up to $300. The fund is organized by the Interfaith Council, which pools resources from several congregations to better meet local needs and to cut down on duplicate requests. Local pastors also have discretionary funds which they often share with congregants and others in need.
• Homeless Ministries. Pastor Jon Avery of Living Water Community Church offers a spiritual care ministry at the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter that provides support, conversation, and community. The shelter also partners with Colby’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, whose Lives of Purpose volunteer program sends first-year students to engage with homeless children. Starfish Village Ministry works intensively with one homeless family at a time, helping family members secure stable jobs and housing. 

Opportunities and Challenges

Religious congregations, Mark Chaves finds, are especially good at mobilizing volunteers for clearly defined tasks like organizing Thanksgiving gift baskets or helping out at the food pantry. While they cannot solve systemic causes of local poverty like the shortage of well-paying jobs, the rising cost of living, and the opioid crisis, Waterville-area faith-based organizations often provide enough assistance to help people get through especially tough times. These organizations, however, worry about attracting the volunteers they need to sustain their vital programs as congregants age. They also require additional funds to better meet local needs. Even small donations make a huge difference: a gift of $1 to the Evening Sandwich Program covers 2.5 meals. A substantial gift could underwrite paid staff or leadership training for key volunteers that might significantly increase the capacity of existing programs.

The most effective faith-based organizations in this country maintain active partnerships with fellow congregations, secular organizations, and government agencies. The Interfaith Council not only brings together mainline Protestant churches and the synagogue to support the Interfaith Resource Fund, it also collaborates with the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program to provide additional financial assistance through KVCAP’s Community Investors Initiative. Several local evangelical churches participate in a separate group called the One Hope Initiative that meets monthly to discuss issues like poverty. The current lack of collaboration between mainline and evangelical churches likely stems in part from political and theological differences. Clergy members are also stretched thin trying to meet the needs of their own congregations and have little time or energy to invest in new relationships. Broader collaboration, however, might result in even more effective programs.

Motivations

When it comes to poverty, active members of local faith-based organizations express a common motivation: faith in the equal worth of every person and a sense of obligation to care for fellow members of the greater Waterville community. They hope not only to meet basic physical needs, but also to empower those they serve with a stronger sense of personal dignity and communal belonging. The following profiles of local leaders and volunteers inspire us to have faith in Waterville: both what it is and what it can become.

Reference

Mark Chaves, Congregations in America (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004).

To learn more about local needs, see the latest KVCAP Community Needs Assessment