NEWTOWN, PA — The Newtown Quaker Meeting children and teenagers hosted a Simple Supper to raise funds for their selected charity this year and raised $2,008 for Penndel Food Pantry of the Bucks County Housing Group.
The Quaker Kids have now raised over $42,000 the last thirteen years by hosting annual Simple Suppers and Lasagna Dinners for charities of their choice, including pick-up meals during the Pandemic!
Last year the young people raised $2,340 for the Aark Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center in Chalfont.
Earlier this year, at their annual lasagna dinner for charity the Quaker Kids raised a whopping $4,008 for Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR), which will go to make micro-loans to a women’s group in India.
When the children were selecting a charity to receive the proceeds from the Simple Supper this year, they held their own Meeting for Business. They knew they wanted to help people who didn’t have enough food to eat in Bucks County. Jack Ciccimaro shared an experience he had with his Boy Scout troop who visited the Penndel Food Bank and that it made a deep impression on him. The kids rallied behind this idea.
Steven Keller, Executive Director of Penndel, attended and gave an overview of the organization: He said that Bucks County Housing Group has two Food Pantries for the most vulnerable – one in Doylestown and one in Penndel; two mobile units that take food where it’s needed the most, and three community gardens.
The Penndel Food Pantry is located at 349 Durham Road, Langhorne and is open 9:30 am to 12:30 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays and 3 to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays. Donations are received on Tuesday mornings from 10-12pm. Newtown Meeting will continue to collect food donations in a large basket in the Meetinghouse lobby.
The Newtown Quaker Meeting children and teens participated in welcoming people, serving the meals, washing up afterwards, and collecting donations from the attendees.
The menu included a dazzling array of nineteen soups and eleven desserts. Soups included West African Peanut Soup, Beef Barley, Beef Chili, Chicken Noodle, Pasta Fagioli w/a hint of Bacon, Pumpkin Black Bean Soup, Sausage Soup, Tortellini Soup. Corn Chowder, Curried Carrot, Sweet Potato Soup, and Elizabeth’s Black Bean Soup
Desserts featured Cherry Cheesecake, Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread, Lemon Pound Cake, Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookies, Oatmeal Cookies, Brownies, Canele, Coconut Cake, and Ube Cupcakes.
Cynthia Vandenberg, head of the children’s Simple Supper Committee, said, “The kids work so well together. It’s wonderful to see them all pitch in to make the event a success.”
Other recipients of the funds raised at charitable events by the Newtown Quaker young people have included: Habitat for Humanity; US hurricane relief via the All Hands Volunteers charity; Syrian refugee relief via the Shelterbox charity; Valley Youth House’s Synergy Project for homeless youth in Bucks County and Allentown; Haiti Relief; The School for Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), the first boarding school for girls in Afghanistan; Greater Philadelphia Diaper Bank; Mercer Street Friends Center in Trenton; Penndel Food Pantry; Save Darfur; and Heifer International.
Newtown Friends Meeting, co-founded by the Quaker artist and minister, Edward Hicks, in 1815, holds services every First Day (Sunday). First Day classes for children and adults are at 9:45 a.m. and Meeting for Worship is at 11 a.m. Childcare is provided. All meetings are open to the public and visitors are warmly welcomed.