Agape Cafe, which started in September 2012, originated from the vision of a small group of church members who saw a need in the community and decided to take action! We partnered with 2nd Harvest Food Bank in Winston-Salem, and started Kid’s Cafe the 2012-2013 school year at the Washington Terrace Park Community Center in High Point. The following year we moved next door to Parkview Village Elementary School. This approaching school year, 2020-2021, will begin our 9th year of our program!
During the start-up of Kid’s Cafe, a partnership with 2nd Harvest Food Bank allowed us to have the opportunity to purchase food at a lower cost from their facility. We are so thankful for their support in getting us started. Because our JUMC members have been so faithful in completely supporting our program, we rarely needed to purchase any products from them. With their blessing, we parted ways after a few years. Because “Kid’s Café” is a trademarked name of 2nd Harvest, we needed to change our name. Our Board decided to use the word “Agape” because of the way God shows His love for Us-unconditional and never ending. We became Agape Café in the fall of 2017!
Agape Café is a free after-school
program. We have 25 children, from this Title I school, in our care 4
days a week. Our children range from kindergarten through 5thgrade. Volunteers from JUMC are at
Parkview each afternoon, Monday through Thursday, to assist with homework, read
books, enjoy outside or gym time, and play educational games. We also provide other
opportunities like arts and crafts and have a yoga class twice a month!
After our blessing, our daily
program concludes with a hot, healthy and delicious dinner so that no child in
our program goes home hungry.
On Thursday before they leave to go home, we give each child a bag filled with nutritious snacks such as fruit and granola bars for them to enjoy over the weekend. All of this is totally funded through donations from JUMC members, at no cost to our Agape Café families.
Before the kids leave for Fall Break, we also provide each of our families with Thanksgiving bags filled with a complete dinner for them to enjoy.
Each Christmas, the children perform
a play for their parents and the Parkview faculty. Afterwards
we have a party and a visit from Santa. Each child leaves with two huge bags of
gifts which always includes a new coat, new pajamas, toiletry items, candy,
school supplies and even a couple of toys from their wish lists.
They even get huge Easter baskets complete with an egg hunt!
The wonderful part of this program is that, because it’s an after-school, church-based program, we can share our Christian faith with our kids. We sing Christian songs and we bless our meal - everyday! We can share the love of Jesus with them - everyday. At Christmas we talk about the real reason for the season - Jesus’ birth, and at Easter we use resurrection eggs to tell the story of how He died and rose again for all of us. We are so blessed that we can pray, worship, and fellowship with them - everyday.
Our program’s Mission Statement is Feed the Body, Feed the Mind, Feed the Soul,
Spreading God’s Abundant Love. It is our hope that something we do or
say will stay with our kids and they will always remember our love for them -
but more importantly, God’s love for them - as
they go through life. If you feel led
to donate to this cause or volunteer your time, please reach out to Angie
Mangum, Program Director, at angie@jumc.org.
Tithes and monetary donations can be dedicated to this program by labeling your check or envelope with “Agape Cafe”.