Hancock United Church of Christ
Funding partner

Since 2008, the Massachusetts-based Hancock United Church of Christ and its members have raised over $141,000 for Sustainable Harvest International (SHI), sponsored two communities in Panama and Honduras, and sent youth and adult volunteers on several service trips to Honduras and Panama. In March 2022, Charlotte Dougherty and Amy Swanson sat down with us to talk about the church’s long-standing relationship with SHI.

Like all United Church of Christ congregations, Hancock is heavily invested in issues of social justice. In the early 2000s, the congregation decided to create a comprehensive program that addressed issues of hunger on a local, regional, and global scale. Although they had established partnerships locally and regionally, they didn’t yet have a globally-focused partner. That is, until they found SHI.

Seeing the impact firsthand

It all began when Carol Counihan, one of Hancock’s congregants, serendipitously met a group of SHI volunteers who were returning from a service trip in Belize. She was immediately intrigued. Carol also just so happened to be on a task force at Hancock Church helping identify a global partner for their comprehensive program addressing hunger.

From there, the church learned more about SHI and reached out to set up a service trip of their own. Since that very first trip, SHI and Hancock Church have built a beautiful relationship with each other and the communities the church and its members have supported through their generosity.

“There was an authenticity to being on the ground,” says Charlotte, who emphasizes the importance of volunteer continuity within the communities. For example, in reflecting on the experience of visiting with the same family multiple years in a row, she remembers “The first year, the kids never smiled and rarely ate; they were visibly malnourished. Two years later, the children were well-fed and there was joy and light in their small house where there hadn’t been before.”

What made such a difference? Two years prior, SHI and Hancock Church volunteers had worked with families to plant trees that bore fruit and to establish vegetable gardens providing a sustainable source of nourishing food.

Planting trees brings life not just to families in the community today but also into the future, as one older man explained. He showed the group of volunteers his fields of hardwood trees and said through a translator, “These trees are for my children and my grandchildren.” Charlotte and Amy recall the man saying, “I never had this hope for the future before. Now, I do.”

SHI and Hancock Church mutually treasure their relationship. Amy and Charlotte both play vital roles in the committee that supports SHI within the church. The dedicated team they work with helps the church fundraise for SHI. In tim, Charlotte joined SHI’s Board of Directors; she recently concluded her tenure as the Board Chair.

Based on her field experience with SHI, Amy has become an outspoken advocate of SHI’s work, often pointing out the breadth and depth of positive impacts on food sovereignty, climate change, and immigration.

Hancock’s current effort focuses on fulfilling its August 2019 commitment to raise $10,000 every year to support SHI’s 5-year program of work in the La Concepción community in Honduras. Between raising funds, building relationships with families during service trips, and continuing to support SHI’s work, Hancock Church and SHI ensure the future is bright for SHI farmers and their families.

Are you part of a mission-driven group committed to issues of social justice?