2024 Advent Offering

More than 735 million people globally faced hunger in 2023, with nearly 2.3 billion experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity. Even in affluent Arlington County, food insecurity is revealed by the nearly 4,000 families served each week at the Arlington Food Assistance Center and the hundreds of families who visit Mount Olivet’s community assistance each month. In the Bible, food serves as both physical nourishment and a profound symbol of spiritual teachings, divine care, and communal fellowship. Jesus’ call to feed the hungry reflects His overarching message of love, mercy, and justice. Embracing this call, Mount Olivet Outreach Committee has adopted Food Security as its year-long theme, focusing on gifts and actions to address hunger locally, regionally, and globally.  

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Mount Olivet’s 2024 Advent Offering organizations are:  ‍

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Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC): AFAC’s mission is to provide our neighbors in need with dignified access to free, supplemental groceries. With your help, we are able to aid residents of Arlington County and the surrounding areas in receiving nutritious food items that not only keep their families fed, but frees up their limited financial resources for other necessary purchases. Currently, AFAC serves about 4,000 families every week. AFAC receives no federal or state funding. Arlington County provides only 7% of what it takes to operate AFAC. The remaining 93% comes from private donations: cash and food donated from individuals, foundations, faith groups, local businesses, and peer organizations. ‍

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UMCOR – Hurricane Relief: When Hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated communities from Florida to North Carolina and Virginia, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) swung into action. Coordinating with annual conferences and local churches and partners, UMCOR provided urgently needed food, water, cleaning supplies, and shelter. Your support of the Advent Offering will assist its mission of alleviating human suffering from famine, war, conflict and natural disasters. UMCOR helps people in more than 80 countries, including the United States, supplying emergency humanitarian relief and long-term recovery assistance when catastrophes overwhelm a community’s ability to recover on its own. ‍

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Rise Against Hunger: its mission is to end hunger worldwide by 1) providing nutrient-rich meals to those in need, particularly children in educational settings, to improve health and learning outcomes, and 2) supporting sustainable farming and agricultural programs that build long-term food security, and 3) delivering food and assistance during disasters and emergencies to support immediate survival and recovery. Mount Olivet will hold an exciting congregation-wide event to assemble 10,000 meals in early Spring 2025.