Nourishing Our Neighborhood in 2026

Halfway through our second year as an independent nonprofit, The Rotterdam Community Center has already raised more in the first six months of 2026 than we raised in all of 2025. That momentum belongs to loyal supporters like you. Because of your generosity, neighbors are finding food, connection, learning, advocacy, and belonging under one roof. Thank you for helping nourish our neighborhood in body, mind, and soul.

Together this year, we have welcomed more than 13,000 guests, provided more than 44,000 meals worth of groceries, and surpassed 220,000 lifetime meals served. In the first half of 2026 alone, volunteers powered this work with more than 4,400 hours of service.

In the last six months, we welcomed two new full-time staff members and one part-time staff member, launched Community Hub Classes with local partners, and created the “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” community conversation series to raise awareness and bridge cultural divides. Community History Nights continue with the Schenectady County Historical Society, Movie Nights are drawing more young people thanks to our Family Engagement Committee, and Girl Scout Troop 2840 has begun meeting at the Center. The Buy Nothing Rotterdam Facebook Group has become a generous new partner through its Junk-in-the-Trunk event and stewardship of our Community Free Food Fridge. Our Community Advocates program also continues to grow, with two more cohorts graduating in 2026 and more than 100 neighbors attending our Third Annual Food and Poverty Speak Out, which earned local press coverage in the Sunday edition of The Daily Gazette. We are honored to help build the pipeline of future leaders in the growing national movement demanding solutions to the root causes of hunger and poverty alongside partners like the National Poor People’s Campaign, Non-violent Medicaid Army, and others.

In the second half of 2026, we will launch a monthly Mobile Food Pantry serving at least 60 households in the Mohonasen Central School District. We are grateful to the Sycamore Collaborative for loaning us a cargo van as we continue building our capacity to feed our neighbors.

All this amazing work is made possible by your continued support. We could not do this without you!

That momentum is powerful, but it is not automatic. Every meal shared, class offered, conversation hosted, and neighbor welcomed depends on people who choose to invest in this work before the need arrives at our door.

It takes a community to build a community center. As we move through the final half of 2026, we are working hard to raise the remaining $165,000 needed to reach our annual fundraising goal of $527,746. Your gift today helps keep food on the shelves, events on the calendar, and our doors open to every neighbor who needs a place to belong.

Join us today in closing the $165,000 gap before December 31. Whether you give monthly or make a one-time gift, your contribution sustains the work of nourishing this amazing neighborhood we call home.

We are in this together. Thank you, as always, for all the ways you make the Rotterdam Community Center such a special place!

In hope,

Rev. Dustin G. Wright

Pastor & Interim Executive Director

Messiah Lutheran Church & the Rotterdam Community Center