1. The School Supply Project

2. First Presbyterian Delivers

3. Summer Worship at First Church

4. Gardening in a Bucket for Kids

5. Advocacy Spotlight

6. Justice Conference Scholarships

2. First Presbyterian Delivers

3. Summer Worship at First Church

1. The School Supply Project

No. 2 pencils (sharpened if possible)

Pencil sharpeners

Pencil pouches

Pencil boxes, plas-tic

2” pink erasers

Pens — blue or black ink

Crayons — box of 24

Colored markers

Colored pencils

Dry-erase markers

Yellow highlighters

Glue sticks & Glue bottles

School scissors

* 1-subject spiral notebooks — wide-ruled and col-lege-ruled

Hard-cover 3-ring binders, 1” or 1½”

Notebook paper, wide-ruled

Notebook paper , college-ruled

Marble composi-tion books — wide-ruled and college-ruled

12” Rulers

Pocket folders

3” Sticky-back notes

Backpacks

Calculators

* = Items especially needed.

FOCUS School Supply Collection has begun! We will gratefully receive contribu-

tions of new school supplies through the last week in August. (Item List Below)

Donation Drop-Off From Monday, August 18 through Thursday, August 21st,

bring them to the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany, 405 Washington

Avenue, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon.

Donations If you wish to contribute money in lieu of supplies, please make your

check out to FOCUS and mark it “FOCUS School Supplies.” Send it to FOCUS, 275

State Street, Albany, NY 12210.

Volunteers First Unitarian Universalist Society has graciously offered to provide

our collection and distribution point in August. Volunteers will be needed on

Aug. 26-29 to sort donations and distribute them to the children. To volunteer

or for more information, please contact Becca Leet at 443-0460 or bec-

cal@focuschurches.net.

4. Gardening in a Bucket for Kids

Gardening in a Bucket Project has now exceeded the reach of 100 participants!

Last week, FOCUS went “on the road” to a local shelter and urban day camp to

drum up excitement about growing veggies. Kids (and some parents) participat-

ed in the combined art & gardening activity. They decorated their own planters

and then planted a choice of a pepper or tomato seedling. Each new gardener

was given advice on how to maintain and grow a plant successfully.

This is a key project of FOCUS efforts to engage in food empowerment activities

within our community.

FOCUS Churches of Albany 275 State St. Albany NY 12210 518.443.0460 www.focuschurches.net

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On Monday, July 7, First Presbyterian Church delivered a whole truckload (500

lbs/650 items) of nonperishable food items to the FOCUS Interfaith Food Pantry.

The items were collected by Presbyterian youth, from around the country, who

were here in Albany for a Work Camp. Thank you to all who made this donation

possible—the organizers, youth and adults of the summer work camp, and the

delivery crew. We are so very grateful on behalf of all of our neighbors who will

benefit from these food items.

The first of the FOCUS Summer Worship series happened this past

Sunday at First Church in Albany. Thank you to our hosts at First Church

and to all who attended.

REV. JOHN PAARLBERG AT THE FIRST CHURCH SERVICE, ABOVE LEFT. ABOVE RIGHT, A PARTICIPANT OF

THE FOCUS PHOTO PETITION TO PROTECT CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS.

Next FOCUS Summer Worship, Aug. 3

Delmar Reformed Church • 10 AM

386 Delaware Ave.

(pick-up choir gathers at 9:15 am)

5. Advocacy Spotlight

Raise the Wage for Tipped Workers!

Last year, when legislation that will raise the minimum wage in New York from

$7.25 per hour to $9.00 by the end of 2015 was passed, a large sector of workers

were excluded from the raise. Tipped workers – restaurant servers and hotel

workers – were left with a frozen minimum wage of just $5.00 per hour. This

past Wednesday, FOCUS participated in a kick of to the campaign to raise the

wage for tipped workers to be 100% of the minimum wage.

Learn more about this issue.

Resources from Interfaith Worker Justice

Campaign to End Childhood Hunger: FOCUS Photo Petition

Many of you participated in FOCUS’ Photo Petition, “SNAP Works!” last year. Due

to its success, we have launched a new photo petition with the goal of ending

childhood hunger leading up to the Child Nutrition Reauthorization in 2015. We

will use our voices to ensure access to food for children by streamlining enroll-

ment by schools and removing barriers to school meals for all. Please participate

in this photo petition! Your voice is needed. The next photo petition opportunity

will be: August 3rd at Delmar Reformed Church.

Above: Daniel Mensah of FOCUS and Stephanie Kite of First Presbyterian Church

6. Justice Conference Scholarships

On August 2 and 3, 2014 hundreds of New Yorkers who fight for justice will join together. Regardless of the issues you work on, or how you work on them: if you’re an organizer, a volunteer, a door knocker, a blogger, a policy wonk, or all of these things – Justice Works is the conference for you.

Click here to visit the Justice Works Conference web site & register.

For all friends of FOCUS: The Labor Religion Coalition is offering scholarships for registration! Contact Joe Paparone of the Labor Religion Coalition if you are inter-ested in attending.

Key Note Speaker, Imani Perry Nationally renowned scholar on racial

justice and Professor of African American

Studies at Princeton University.