Social Justice Gathering, 1/7/26

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Date/Time/Place: January 7, 2026  4:30 pm – 5:30 at BUUF  Library

Attending: Rev. Sara, Cathy S., Carry, Bonnie Violet, Mark B. Jim B., Debra S., Linda S.

Agenda:

  • Click here to see the notes from the 9/24/25 Social Justice Gathering
  • Meal Programs
    • Rev. Sara: BUUF signed up for 1 round of meals and 1 lunch with the Boise Kitchen Collective.  The meal is picked up by a service that delivers it to the Boise Kitchen Collective.
      • This has been very popular with many volunteers. Going forward we will do this twice a month with 4 people in a 1.5 hour. 
    • There is a restarted meal program for the Interfaith Sanitary –
      • Cathy S.[email]: Linda and I met with Frank Kalange, the chef for Interfaith Sanctuary (IS), who is reaching out to faith communities to help with a dinner once a month, preferably both financially and with volunteers. The new meal program at the new sanctuary will likely start at the beginning of february
      • Cathy S.: BUUF was very involved at the IS up until the pandemic, and not as involved since. Frank will be doing meals and teaching kitchen skills at the new facility. Frank’s Ideal is  a congregation that contributes $400 ($5,000/yr) and 4 volunteers cook and  serve.  There is a handout of other ways that people can volunteer.
      • Rev Sara.: $5,000 and a year long commitment is a lot.  A BUUF coordinator  is needed to start, similar to the coordinator for Friendship Dinners.   Volunteers could be found with a sign up sheet and education of what will be expected of the volunteers. Also  a pod or ministry teams could do this as a group activity.
      • Mark:  We would organize a tour of the facility to let people know about opportunities in the new facility.
    • Decision:  For the Interfaith Sanctuary meals, we could just try this for 4 months and see how it goes.  We’ll decrease the frequency of the Boise  Kitchen Collective meals  in favor of increasing the Interfaith Sanctuary Meal program
      • Rev Sara and Staff will create a sign up sheet to gauge interest. 
  • Review of 2025 – 2026 Plate Partners
    • Feb – Boise Hive, Anne Marie
    • Mar – Jesse Tree, Mary Ruckh
    • Apr  – Idaho Interfaith Power and Light, Jim
    • May – Global Talent – Scott Smith
    • Jun  – Boise Low income support tools (LIST) , Mark
    • Funds raised for plate partners so far this year
      • Trans joy $1400
      • Duck Valley, $1800
      • Wassemuth, $1400
  • Repair and Healing Through Reparations
    • Who is discussing this and what are their current thoughts?
    • Reparation Task Force, RJM steering, …
      • Working on how to present the project to the congregation
      • Planning several in-person question & answer meetings for  the congregation
        • reparations learning circles
        • The invitation to the learning circles could be similar to the introduction sent to the Board, et al last September
      • Craft a resolution for a vote in May
  • Debra Smith: I’m considering proposing a youth driven social justice group with fund for this year’s auction special appeal, as being consistent with our theme of “The Future Is in Our Hands.” My questions about this possibility are many, but I’d like to know the thoughts of the Social Justice Council.
    • Auction cmte is focusing of youth, also the AGD 
    • Would like to have a social justice fund managed by a youth social justice council
      • Discern projects to grant funds 
      • A service project could grow out of it.
    • Fund amount: 5,000 for 3 years
    • Perhaps a paddle item at the auction
    • Guided by When Your Lead
    • There are 8 kids (5th – 10th grade) who will soon be transitioning to high school age when most kids disappear
      • Hope this would be something to engage the kids
    • Similar to high school clubs with a facility mentor 
  • Social Justice Resolutions
    • The Social Justice Council is offering a resolution to focus and guide our thoughts:  Faithful Defiance of Authoritarianism, a Call to Action: Reaffirming Our Covenant for Democracy and Freedom.
      •  in-person discussion and comment sessions leading up to a congregation-wide vote in January.
      • an online comment form for your comments (Click here to use the form)
      • Not discussed – tabled
      • Update (1/16/26): Results of an email discussion whether or not the resolution is unnecessary given the activities on-going in the congregation
        • Bring the resolution to a vote of the congregation
          • Given current congregational activities a listening/feedback session is not needed
          • Introduce the resolution for a vote by
            • Noting our current activities
            • Desire to codify our commitment
  • Updating the congregation on our justice activities
    • Want to have a periodic Social Justice email to the congregation
      • Contains brief paragraph from each justice group
  • Status of the Social Justice Fund
    • Click here to see the Social Justice Grant Fund Tracking Spreadsheet
    • Rev. Sara: The Social Justice Grant Fund (funded by special appeals in 2022 & 2025) now contains $22,832 (as of sept. ‘25). Back in 2022, we crafted some policies and procedures to help guide our stewardship of this fund, please read them HERE.
      • We have been using these funds to help support the work of our active ministry teams (listed in the above document) but have not done an adequate job of communicating that to the congregation nor inviting individuals (or other teams) to make proposals). We may want to consider a semi-annual communication that shares both what the funds have been used for and how folks can make a request of their own.
      • Additionally, housed within the SJ grant fund are two separate funds for Racial Justice (RJM) & Refugee & Immigrant Justice (RIM) which were funded by Plate Partner donations in FY25. We agreed that these funds would be used first for any events/projects/community donations until it is spent down and then additional funds may be requested from the council.
        • RJM – $3,977.78
        • RIM – $753.53
      • Requests from the congregation
        • If  the project area or event falls under the current justice ministries then the requestor would be directed to the ministry 
      • The assumption is that ministries are working with local orgs through the plate partner program so this fund would be used to fund local organizations that are small and doing work that is in line with our values but do not have an established relation with a ministry 
  • Status of the Social Justice Council Budget
    • Rev. Sara: Social Justice has an operating budget line of $1000 for the 2025 – 2026 fiscal year. This line will be used for misc. SJ expenses that are small amounts. For example, we spent apx. $84 on door hangers advertising our food pantry.
    • Budget: $1,000 from July 1, 2025 – June 30 2026