Congrats to Peace Lutheran

The Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions (FACS) presented a Sustainability Champion Award on June 8 to Peace Lutheran Church, one of 27 ACCA Churches.

The awards honor people and organizations who make significant contributions toward the FACS mission of creating moral and equitable solutions to climate change in Virginia. Peace Lutheran Church’s commitment to sustainability falls under one of its six guiding principles: “We promote love and justice for all of God’s creation.” To reduce its energy consumption, the church funded and installed rooftop solar panels in 2021.

Peace Lutheran has also taken other steps to curb energy use, including programmable thermostats, LED lights, automatic light switches, upgrading dishwashers, planting native trees, turning much of the property into gardens, installing an energy-efficient HVAC system, and encouraging staff to drive less by working from home.

Congratulations to Peace Lutheran on this important achievement!

Child Development Center Staff Development

The staff at the ACCA Child Development Center (CDC) recently attended a two-day training session focusing on Project-Based Learning.

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is more than just a teaching method. It is a revitalization of education for students so that they can develop intellectually and emotionally. By using real-world scenarios, challenges, and problems, students gain useful knowledge and skills. The goal of using complex questions or problems is to develop and enhance student learning by encouraging critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, and self-management. Students make their own decisions, perform their own research, and review their own and fellow students’ processes and projects.

The CDC staff visited local businesses and designed learning experiences based on what they learned.

ACCA in the Community

ACCA is proud to help support the work of Just Neighbors, a local organization that provides high-quality immigration legal services to low-income immigrants, asylees and refugees in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

During the last nine months, Just Neighbors has served 58 clients impacting over 200 individuals in our area. Many of these families would not be able to pursue their legal status without ACCA’s financial support.

Immigration status is a key social determinant of health. Legal status means not only a legal right to work, which generally means better jobs and an increase in income, but also reduces stress from fear of deportation, potentially creates access to health insurance or Medicaid, and may provide better living conditions and reducing dependence on other social services. Find out more about Just Neighbors.

Donations for Food Pantry

As families across the country struggle with reduced Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, we have seen an increase in demand for food from our food pantry here in Annandale. Can you help? We need:

1) Cash to purchase fresh foods. Donate online through the Catalogue for Philanthropy

2) Nonperishable foods - We will be collecting food donations Tuesday-Friday afternoons from 1:30 pm - 4 pm, with the exception of County Holidays and other scheduled closings. The ACCA food pantry is located at 7200 Columbia Pike (trailer separate from the day care center) in Annandale (next to the fire station). Please do not drop off food if a volunteer is not available. What we need.

Please share this information with your family, friends, and neighbors.

Save the Date

Please save Saturday October 14 for the Annandale CROP Hunger Walk. The walk will be at Lake Accotink Park, with registration beginning at 8 a.m. The walk raises funds for Church World Service hunger relief and poverty-fighting programs around the world and for ACCA.

For more information contact Camille Mittelholtz kcmittelholtz@gmail.com or accacrop@gmail.com