COVID Relief Fund It has been almost a year since the COVID pandemic began to have a major impact on life for many of us within Central Plains Mennonite Conference. When the pandemic began, none of us knew how this was going to affect our lives, and individuals, congregations and CPMC worried about how we would weather this situation financially.
CPMC, along with other Mennonite organizations like Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite Mission Network applied for and received a Payroll Protection Plan forgivable loan, and that money was used to pay salaries and expenses. The CPMC board committed to passing money along to congregations and individuals within CPMC who need it, if we raised more money than we needed to meet our financial obligations this year. Given the healthy financial picture of CPMC as of January 31st, we are committing $10,000 to the relief fund with more to come if we finish our fiscal year well. We are deeply grateful for the support we have received that has allowed us to be in this position. In addition, we received an inquiry from someone who did not need their government stimulus check. They wondered whether there are congregations or individuals in our conference who might need additional support. In response, the Conference Board gave the Stewardship Task group the job of setting up a fund where people can donate excess stimulus funds. These funds would then be made available to CPMC churches to use as congregations or to disperse for individuals within congregations who are struggling because of the pandemic.
If you would like to donate to the COVID Relief Fund you can earmark a check, COVID Relief Fund, and mail it to the CPMC office (PO Box 101, Freeman, SD 57029-0101) or you can donate online using the DONATE button on the bottom right of our webpage: www.centralplainsmc.org (be sure to include a special instruction on the PayPal page that directs the money to the COVID Relief Fund).
Congregations who are interested in accessing this money can fill out the COVID Relief application form. A quick link to that form is on the CPMC website homepage at www.centralplainsmc.org.