The Upper Lancaster Community Food Pantry(aka The Church of the Purple Shirts!) serves on the 2nd Thursday of each month. Five churches gather together to provide food for our neighbors in need. We prepare bags and boxes of groceries, fresh produce and frozen meat in the morning, and starting at 1 pm, we distribute them to families waiting in cars. We currently serve over 100 families (over 300 individuals). Even dogs and cats get fed! Volunteers are always welcome. Just show up at Trinity Pavilion between 10-4 and we’ll find a purple shirt and a spot for you. Come check us out.

SMWC and Trinity collect Tuna Fish and Peanut Butter all month long for the pantry. Bring items to church on Sunday or when you come for chair yoga or line dancing.

(Formerly known as the River Road Food Pantry located at SMWC.)

In conjunction with Bay Aging and Trinity, we volunteer for two months in the Spring and one month in the Fall to distribute meals to homebound people in our community. It takes only a few hours on a Monday morning, but the clients receive a week of food, which might be the only good meals they have all week.

At the start of the school year, and during the year as necessary, we collect school supplies for the local elementary school teachers and students.

Having access to school supplies has a positive impact on children's education. It allows them to fully engage in classroom activities, complete assignments, and participate in various learning experiences. Lack of supplies can hinder a child's ability to learn and participate fully in the educational process.

This July, we are collecting supplies to help students get off to a good start in the 2024 - 2025 School Year. This year we are collecting:

• Backpacks

• Kleenex / tissue boxes

• Clorox/disinfectant wipes

• Pencil pouches and pencil boxes )containers for crayons, scissors, glue, etc.)

• Wide Ruled loose leaf notebook paper

• 3 and 5 subject notebooks

Please bring your donations to the Parish Hall by Sunday, August 4th, 2024

We are blessed to have 37 wonderful wooded acres. Before the pandemic we wondered what we could offer the wider community. We didn’t have to look any further than our own backyard. In partnership with the community and with support from the Northern Neck Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists, we have cleared and maintain walking trails through our property. The flora is being inventoried by a certified master naturalist for use in trail maps and signage. A trail map and walking sticks are located at the entrance near the labyrinth. Borrow a stick for your walk and simply return it to any of the walking stick boxes. The trails and labyrinth are open sunrise to sunset for the community to enjoy.

Current Trail Map