How We Serve
Cherrydale is deeply committed to sharing God’s love with others through outreach locally and around the globe. We are especially proud of our intergenerational, hands-on approach to mission where everyone – from 1 to 91 – participates. We host 3 -4 large projects a year and have focused on hunger in our community in recent years. We send teams on service trips, make 30,000 meals each year with Rise Against Hunger, create flood buckets for hurricane victims and more.
Rise Against Hunger
Each February, in partnership with Boy Scout Troop 149, we package 30,000 meals for distribution with Rise Against Hunger. This tradition began in 2012 and since that time we have packaged almost 150,000 meals to feed the hungry around the globe. It takes hundreds of us to accomplish our goal!
Our 2022 Rise Against Hunger Event was held Sunday, June 5th, following worship.
Open House Sunday
Cherrydale has incorporated a service project into our annual Open House Sunday each September. Recent projects have included making flood buckets to help with Hurricane relief in Texas, creating “blessing bags” with hygiene products to be distributed to the homeless, crafting dolls for Children’s hospitals, and cutting out material for shoes in Uganda through Sole Hope.
A-Span Brown Bag Meal
In non-pandemic years, our youth feed the homeless in Arlington each quarter through the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network Brown Bag Meals program. We both create the meals and serve them in a local park.
Produce Drop
In the fall, Cherrydale typically sponsors a produce bagging event where a literal ton of food is dropped off in our parking lot. We invite the entire community to help us bag the produce so that it can be distributed to hungry families.
*******************************************************
In September of 2020, in the midst of the Pandemic, we began a partnership with Fleet Elementary School. It is our hope that we can continue to assist them with various needs of the local students. We have already done a wonderful successful coat drive as well as been able to help several families with basic needs and bills.
Monthly Food Collection
On the first Sunday of each month, we collect food to donation to Food for Others or the Arlington Food Assistance Center. We also participate in the Souper Bowl of Caring and our Sunday School / Youth programs sponsor other food collections throughout the year.
Mission Trips
The youth (6th – 12th grade) have traveled domestically and internationally for the past decade sharing God’s love with others through home repair. Some memorable trips include Christiansburg, VA, Long Island for Hurricane Sandy clean up, Puerto Rico, and repairing a school in Belize. Our Adults most recently traveled to Frakes, Kentucky to serve at Henderson Settlement, a United Methodist Church outreach center. Our team participated in a variety of projects including building a shed and helping in the local thrift shop.