Missions

First Presbyterian Church, Alameda (FPCA) reaches into the local community as well as around the world to share God’s blessings and the love of Christ by offering our time and resources. Monthly we deliver dinner to the Midway Shelter for women and children. Quarterly, we host a dozen Dine and Connect volunteers in our large and well-equipped kitchen. The volunteers, from FPCA as well as other local churches, cook and distribute approximately 150 hot meals for community low income and unhoused people. We also prepare meals a few times a year for those living in their vehicles at the Village of Love parking lot. We strive to be supportive of Love Elementary School, our next door neighbor. We cheer on the students in their Halloween parade, and periodically deliver sumptuous breakfasts to the Love teachers.

We installed and maintain a Little Free Library for adults, and one for the many children walking by from Love Elementary School as well as children and families from the Small Size Big Mind preschool that meets in the church classrooms. We regularly make food and monetary donations to the Alameda Food Bank. Several times a year, we volunteer together as a group for the Project Peace Day of Service at community non-profits like Harbor House, REAP Climate Center, local beach clean ups, and Alameda Point Collaborative. We have hosted a group of teens in the foster care program and their adult sponsors in the SOAR for Youth program to enhance their educational opportunities.

We support the Alameda's Homeless Warming Shelter at nearby Christ Episcopal Church by donating toiletries for the shower program and occasional meals throughout the winter. Every Saturday, we host “Cookies and Conversation” a gathering of English language learners who come to FPCA to engage in informal conversation with volunteers from the church and community. We hold the funds for Never Alone in Alameda (NAA), an organization which helps immigrants and refugees make the transition to life in the United States. NAA was formed by members of FPCA with members of the Rotary Club of Alameda and has helped five families since November of 2020. Twice a month we offer a free Yoga class for the community in our Florence Helland Fellowship Hall, facilitated by Cindy Berk of the Breathing Room.

For decades, FPCA has participated in the Angel Tree program at Christmastime. This is a ministry of Prison Fellowship which enables incarcerated parents to request gifts for their children at home. Members of FPCA buy, wrap and deliver gifts to approximately 20 children each December.

To help our world, we donate to the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, four Presbyterian Special Offerings, and individual missionaries in South Korea and other countries.