Caring Network

• Meals Network
• Caring Kits
• Caring Cards
• Comfort Choir

Meals Network

The coordinator of the Meals Network is currently Kay Williams.  Click here for the position description of the Meals Coordinator. 

1. Request for meals come from a variety of sources (the church office, caring listeners, ministers)

2. Once a meal request has been made it is forwarded to the Meals Coordinator. 

3. The Meal Coordinator reaches out to the individual to confirm that meals would be appreciated and collect the necessary information. 

4. After confirmation, the Meals Coordinator uses the churches Meal Train account to create a meal train link.

5. Add a note to the person's profile in Planning Center that a meal train was created, including the dates of the train, reason, and link (url) to the meal train sign up.

6. Send the link with the Meals Network, and other individuals and groups in the church who would likely rally to the cause (Minister of Community Care can provide list or point of contact to spread the word out)
   

7. Meals coordinator monitors the signups and prompts the team if necessary. 

8. Meals coordinator checks in with meal recipient a few days before the end of the meal train to assess if it should continue. 

   1. If more meals are needed create an additional note in the persons Planning Center Profile

Conversation with Recipient 

• Happy to provide support them getting meals

• Usually the meals for a single person can usually be enough two meals (leftovers for lunch or dinner)

• We can usually provide meals every second day, of course situations vary. We can be a strong part of your meal process by creating the meal train and then if you could spread that out to your network that is most effective

What to ask:

• Confirm address, phone number, and email address. 

• Food likes and dislikes

• Allergies or dietary restrictions

• How often meals would be appreciated and for long

• Best time to drop off meal

• # of Adults and # Children

• What to share about the situation 

 

Caring Kits

Caring Kits are gift bags with items of comfort and ritual that are dropped off on the doorstep (or otherwise personally delivered) to congregants. The current coordinator of the Caring Kits at Foothills is Jen Wallen.

All information for building caring kits is here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xw1NnWLaKa3fbF60BYEqGL8tssNsIiTW?usp=share_link

Organizational spreadsheet for caring kits is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OumglgNDg1rgtUStJH7rmlwdMxGaxkENYVMgfnvdSh8/edit?usp=sharing

Process for Caring Kits:

1. Consent: We only deliver caring kits with the consent of the recipient. Minister or Caring Listener would say, “Our Caring Team would love to bring you a gift bag with some items of comfort and ritual, like a handmade shawl. Would that be ok?”  

If it’s a Caring Listener asking this, they would indicate on their documentation form that the person would like a caring kit.

2. Notify Caring Kits Lead: Minister for Community Care tells Caring Kits lead via text or email that someone would like a caring kit.  Please share the person’s name and the circumstances in this communication.

3. Add to Caring Kits Workflow:. Minister for Community Care goes to Caring Kits Workflow  in PCO and adds name of recipient by doing these steps:

• Press “add card” in upper righthand corner
• Type in name and click “add person"
• Click name to view card
• Write a note with the circumstances for the caring kit (e.g. Sam’s mother died) and choose “caring kit note” from dropdown menu and click “save note"
• Click “complete step"

Caring Cards

When an “active pastoral prayer” note is added to someone’s PCO profile, they will be added to the caring cards list for that week.

Bugs Seifert sends an email at the end of each week to our Caring Cards Team with the names, addresses, and circumstances of these people.

Comfort Choir

Comfort choir is currently dormant.