First Church has a Social Responsibility Committee that represents the congregation in finding, implementing, and maintaining volunteer and fundraising opportunities that will have broad-based support within our congregation.

Below is a list of current projects and committees supported and endorsed by First Church along with contact information, the best sources of information regarding participation opportunities, and needs. You are invited to join or support our efforts.

Religious Education projects
Action predicated on principles and values is an essential component of religious education at First Church. We offer many ways for children, youth, and parents to serve our congregation and the wider community. These include our Sandwich Making for the Homeless; collecting for UNICEF, UUSC's "Guest at Your Table," local food pantries, and the First Church Mitten Tree; support of our Partner Church in Transylvania; and our ongoing card-making project for bereaved and ill members of the congregation. Other projects include efforts on behalf of the South Side Day Nursery such as collecting nursery items and holiday gifts, and participating in clean-up days.
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Sandwich Making for the Homeless
On the second and fourth Sundays of every month, adult and child volunteers prepare brown bag lunches for the homeless served by Gateway Homeless Services, Missouri's largest emergency shelter. Volunteers gather in Fellowship Hall beginning anytime after 9:15 a.m. and all are welcome. First Church volunteers also aid St. Louis' homeless through special collections of toiletries, school supplies, and holiday gifts.
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Fair Trade Coffee
First Church sponsors Fair Trade coffee at church functions and sells it in Fellowship Hall the first and third Sundays of each month. Fair Trade offers small farmers an economically stable, guaranteed-income trade relationship, enabling them to provide their families with food, clothing, and medicine. Through our UUSC Coffee project, members can support the coffee growers by buying Fair Trade coffee to serve in their homes and places of business.
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South Side Day Nursery
The South Side Day Nursery was founded in 1886 by 15 Unitarian women to provide an employment agency and low-cost child care to low-income working families. SSDN today has expanded its mission to include more comprehensive approaches to family support. Volunteers work directly in the center's programs, assist with fundraising, and support collections of books, toys, and infant needs.
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Mentor St. Louis
Mentor St. Louis is a citywide program that seeks to improve school attendance, stimulate a positive attitude, enhance social and educational development, and elevate self-esteem by placing an empowering adult with each child within a well-structured program. Volunteers work with students at Farragut School in a unique program that links adult volunteers with elementary school students in St. Louis Public Schools. Mentors meet with their students monthly and keep in touch on a weekly basis.
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Gift of the Heart for Kids Smart
Gift of the Heart helps restock the shelves of the Kid Smart program, a local teacher store, providing free school supplies to teachers in qualifying schools where a large percentage of students cannot provide their own supplies. Donations of supplies from pencils to backpacks and money are collected each Sunday in February at the Gift of the Heart table in Fellowship Hall.
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Habitat for Humanity
Habitat volunteers participate in scheduled Saturday Build Days learning to build and raise walls as well as build community, within the First Church work group, with other volunteers on the work site, and with the families for whom homes are being built.
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Holy Ground Collaborative
Holy Ground consists of five Central West End congregations of various faiths. It promotes community action within the metro St. Louis area by projects such as reduction of lead poisoning, voter education drives, joint interfaith services and musical events. On a rotating monthly basis, member congregations also provide meals for the Hot Lunch program at Trinity Episcopal. For further information, see the Holy Ground Collaborative website.
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Litter Pick-Up
First Church has committed to cleaning up a section of Millbrook close to Skinker, benefiting our larger community. Our volunteers do pick-ups four times a year, usually on Sunday afternoons, and have the opportunity to clean up our roads while meeting other church members.
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Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)
The UUSC is a nonsectarian organization that promotes human rights and social justice worldwide. Our members individually support UUSC through paid memberships and our congregation as a whole provides financial support through the "Guest at Your Table" project, which supports the UUSC's human rights program, and through special collections for disaster relief.
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Community Action Endowment Fund
Established in 1985, CAEF disburses monies each year to a variety of direct service and social action projects in our community based on need, effectiveness of the proposed response, service area, financial leverage, possibilities for involving church members, and visibility. Awards are made in the fall to representatives of recipient organizations.
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St. Louis Unitarian Foundation for Children
An outgrowth of the Mission Free School, which was at one time a temporary home for children in distress, the Foundation distributes available funds exclusively for the benefit of children. Supported programs include the South Side Day Nursery, St. Louis Crisis Nurseries, and St. Martha's Hall. Church members sit on the Board of the Foundation to supervise the investment of its assets and decide on the distribution of its funds to organizations that direct their efforts toward the needs of children.
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Holiday Meals with Campus Kitchen
St. Louis University's Campus Kitchen delivers healthy, well-balanced meals to low-income seniors, children, and families in the city of St. Louis. Church volunteers help cook and deliver meals during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season when the university does not have its usual cadre of student helpers. Volunteers are needed for two-hour shifts to help with cooking or food delivery.
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River des Peres Watershed Coalition
The Coalition focuses on the cleanup, enhancement, and restoration of the River des Peres watershed, a vital natural and cultural resource in the St. Louis metropolitan area. First Church volunteers are involved in river cleanup in the spring and autumn as well as with the Deer Creek/Rocket Park project, which is a Coalition showcase.
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RESULTS
RESULTS is a nonprofit grassroots advocacy organization committed to creating the political will to end hunger and the worst aspects of poverty. It does this by aiding individuals to exercise their personal and political power by lobbying elected officials for effective solutions and key policies that affect hunger and poverty. Members meet monthly for training and action planning.
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If you have general questions about our social responsibility projects, please contact for more information.