The Harvest Outreach People’s Project (The HOPP) began in 2020 as a partnership between 4 United Methodist Churches of the Peninsula Delaware and Washington Baltimore Conferences which has grown to a partner with 32 Churches and 23 nonprofit organizations serving the Greater New Castle County Delaware to bring food, health, social services, and tech directly to the people living in their communities. Our vision is to restore dignity, health, opportunity, and hope to our communities by building ongoing relationships with people and nonprofit agencies.
From its inception, we have seen tremendous growth in the program. A grant from a combination of community resources including Longwood Foundation and the Clarence Fraime Fund will enable us to build a central distribution warehouse in Wilmington on 330 East 30th Street, Wilmington, DE 19802. The Vision Grant from Delaware Community Foundation helped us to form relationships with Brandywine Counseling, Area Senior Centers, State Service Centers,and other groups to bring services to these areas as we deliver food and supplies. As we have expanded, there has been an increasing number of nonprofits looking to partner with us, enabling them to connect directly with the people in the community.
As active churches, we have over 500 volunteers who serve our monthly distributions. We utilize neighborhood data, analytics, and statistics to serve as an accurate resource for nonprofit agencies and partners working with us in the community. This mission is not limited to United Methodist Churches or even religious organizations.