Before the pandemic, members of Andrew Chapel UMC were working with members of Vienna Presbyterian Church’s Belong program to tutor students at Cunningham Park Elementary.  When the schools closed, so did the tutoring…temporarily!  The group of volunteers reformed to find ways to continue to help the students, and in April, relaunched the program through Zoom!  We are working with the same children, providing math and reading to groups from 1st through 5th grades.  Each group gets tutoring once/week, until the end of the school year, with all groups getting a FUN FRIDAY time with cool science experiments, dances and music.  “It’s wonderful to be able to keep the relationships we’d built with these students. The kids look forward to our time together every week, and so do we!” said one volunteer.

During the pandemic, Andrew Chapel has continued its commitment to Cunningham Park Elementary School through the Food for Kids program, too. We have been providing grocery gift cards and food bags, to meet the needs that the school has identified. We will be delivering about 50 bags every two weeds throughout the summer.  These are just some of the ways that we continue to BE the church out in the world!