1.

School Supply Proj ect

2. Summer 2014 Newsletter
3. Summer Worship
4. Photo Petition to End Child Hunger
5. FOCUS with Congressman Tonko
6. Mac & Cheese Volunteers Needed
7. Your Voice for Summer Meals
8. Faith for a Fair New York Retreat
2. Summer 2014 Newsleter
3. Summer Worship
1. School Supply Project
No. 2 pencils
(sharpened
if possible)
Pencil sharpeners
Pencil pouches
Pencil boxes, plas-
tc
2 pink erasers
Pens blue or
black ink
Crayons box of
24
Colored markers

Colored pencils
Dry-erase markers
Yellow highlighters
Glue stcks & Glue
botles
School scissors
* 1-subject spiral
notebooks
wide-ruled and col-
lege-ruled
Hard-cover 3-ring
binders,
1 or 1
Notebook paper,
wide-ruled
Notebook paper ,
college-ruled
Marble composi-
ton books
wide-ruled and
college-ruled
12 Rulers
Pocket folders
3 Stcky-back
notes
Backpacks
Calculators
* = Items especially
needed.
FOCUS School Supply Collecton has begun! We will gratefully receive contribu-
tons of new school supplies through the last week in August. (ItemListBelow)
Donaton Drop-Of From Monday, August 18 through Thursday, August 21st,
bring them to the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany, 405 Washington
Avenue, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon.
Donatons If you wish to contribute money in lieu of supplies, please make your
check out to FOCUS and mark it FOCUS School Supplies. Send it to FOCUS, 275
State Street, Albany, NY 12210.
Volunteers First Unitarian Universalist Society has graciously ofered to provide
our collecton and distributon point in August. Volunteers will be needed on
Aug. 26-29 to sort donatons and distribute them to the children. To volunteer
or for more informaton, please contact Becca Leet at 443-0460
or beccal@focuschurches.net.
4. Photo Petton to End Child Hunger


FOCUS Churches of Albany
275 State St. Albany NY 12210
518.443.0460
www.focuschurches.net






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The In FOCUS Newsleter is hot of the press. Access the PDF online by clicking
the image below. The newsleter features an artcle from executve council
president Nancy Horan, advocacy news, details about the school supply and
food empowerment projects, and more!
Mark your calendar!
The next FOCUS Summer Worship,
Aug. 31 10 AM
Westminster Presbyterian
85 Chestnut Street
Many of you partcipated in FOCUS Photo Petton, SNAP Works! last year. Due
to its success, we have launched a new photo petton with the goal of ending
childhood hunger leading up to the Child Nutriton Reauthorizaton in 2015. We
will use our voices to ensure access to food for children by streamlining enroll-
ment by schools and removing barriers to school meals for all. Please partcipate
in this photo petton! Your voice is needed. The next photo petton opportunity
will be: August 31st at Westminster Presbyterian Church.
Above: Photos from the August 3rd Summer Worship at Delmar Reformed Church.
Tue., Sept. 16th at 11 AM through
Wed., Sept. 17th at 2 PM
Dominican Retreat Center
1945 Union St. Niskayuna, NY
Join with clergy, faith leaders, and
congregants of many faiths
& denominatons to tackle issues of
social and economic justce in NY
State. Workshop topics include:
Moral Budgetng, Low-Wage Work-
er campaigns, Immigraton Reform
and NYS Dream Act, Single-payer
Healthcare, Prison Reform, and more.
FOCUS scholarships available! Call Beth at 443-0460, bethg@focuschurches.net.
Register (call Emily McNeill: 646-256-5727 /email emcneill@labor-religion.org.
More infowww.labor-religion.org
5. FOCUS with Congressman Tonko
A delegaton of organizatons working to end hunger met with Congressman
Tonko on August 7th in his Albany ofce. Among them was FOCUS pantry guest
and advocate Angela Nathan who shared testmony and valuable insight about
the impact of SNAP cuts in the wake of the Federal Farm Bill 2014. Overall, the
bill is slated to result in 8.6 billion in SNAP cuts over the next decade.
7. Your Voice for Summer Meals
Did you know?
Senator Gillibrand has introduced a bill in the Senate to improve enrollment
and access to the summer food service programbut many of our representa-
tves throughout New York State have yet to sign on. Make a phone call and let
your Senator or Representatve in the house that you know that when school
gets out, hunger does not take a vacaton! Place a call today & let us know how
it goes!

Sample Call Script:
Hello, my name is ______________ and I would like to leave a mes-
sage for Congress Member______________. I am calling in support of
Senator Gillibrands bi-partsan Summer Meals Act (S. 2527/H.R. 5012). The bill
will increase access to food by hungry children by:
1. Streamlining paperwork for meal sites;
2. Increasing transportaton and the use of mobile meal trucks to
underserved areas;
3. Allowing sites to serve a third meal; AND
4. Improving the area eligibility test to allow communites to partcipate
if 40 percent of the children in the area are eligible for free or reduced-price
meals. Currently, the threshold is 50 percent .
(Ifyouhaveapersonalstory,addit!)
I stand in support of the Summer Meals Act and I hope that Sen./Rep.
_________ will also. Thank you for your tme.

Want more info on the issue? Read the primer distributed by FRAC click here.
Prefer to write a leter? Download our sample leter by clicking here.

8. Faith for a Fair New York Retreat
The Albany Lutheran Cluster of Churches will be working with Outreach NE
(www.outreachprogram.org/outreach-northeast) to package 20,000 mac and
cheese meals. The work session will be held at First Lutheran on Western Ave
in Albany and will begin with training at 12:45 pm on September 7th. The work
will be fnished about 2:45 pm. There will be 10 assembly lines set up with 120
workers. To volunteer contact Pastor John Knarvik at 518-458-1562 or by
email: jknarvik@hotmail.com.
Money donatons are also needed (to purchase ingredients) Checks should be
made to Albany Lutheran Cluster. FOCUS Interfaith Food Pantry will help with
the distributon of the packages to hungry families in Albany.
6. Mac & Cheese Volunteers Needed