FOCUS • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2025
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Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church
JF Kapnek Trust:
Feeding Hope in Zimbabwe
he JF Kapnek Trust, headquartered in
Harare, Zimbabwe, is one of this month’s
recipients of the Christmas Special Offering.
LOPC has had a relationship with Kapnek
for over 20 years, initially helping address
the AIDS/HIV epidemic, and now, supporting
Kapnek’s outreach to health issues related to
AIDS/HIV exposure such as cervical cancer
and TB.
Over time Kapnek’s health related efforts
expanded to include young children. They
reasoned healthy children would do better
in school and be stronger to fight off other health issues. Kapnek’s Early Childhood
Development (ECD) program has become a model envied by those communities
unable to have Kapnek in their regions of the country.
A key component of ECD is the hot meal served to preschool children which LOPC
has helped finance over the past few years. This program provides a fortified
porridge the parents prepare for their children. Kapnek feeds 12,000 children a day
for the cost of $0.03 a child!
In addition to the daily porridge, periodically in the year Kapnek brings government
nurses to the preschools to have health check ups and immunizations if the parents
allow. Since parents must bring the children in for the checkups, they will also bring
their other children so the nurses can do health check ups on everyone. This allows
Kapnek to reach an additional 3,000 children to identify health concerns. The
nurses will see the 6,000 parents who also receive health and nutritional education
at the schools.
Christmas
Special Offering 2025
Feeding Children: Near and Far
n this Season of Giving, cries for help come from all around the world. For those of us with access to health care and
plenty to eat, our hearts ache for the less fortunate, especially the most vulnerable among us: children.
This year’s Christmas Special Offering at LOPC supports two mission partners committed to feeding children, both globally
and locally: the JF Kapnek Trust in Zimbabwe and the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano here in the Bay Area.
Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano:
Feeding Our Neighbors
loser to home, one in five children in Contra Costa and Solano counties live
in food-insecure households. The Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano,
another of our Christmas Offering recipients, is a critical source of relief, distributing food to more than 275,000 people
every month. The food bank also partners with local schools, community centers, and faith organizations to reach families
with fresh produce, staples, and nutrition education.
Your gift helps children receive the nutrition they need to grow and thrive.
Give the Gift of
Nourishment
Your generosity this Christmas
can change lives, both near
and far. Our goal this Christmas
season is to raise $20,000.
Thank you in advance for your
generosity!
•
$25 helps supply weekend
food packs for a child for
two months.
•
$100 feeds 16 children for
a year.
•
$250 provides fresh
produce to multiple families
for a season.
•
$500 feeds two entire
classrooms for the year.
Donate between December
1–31 by writing “Christmas
Special Offering” in the memo
line of your check or by visiting
lopc.org/specialoffering.
Important unintended benefits to this program are: attendance at Kapnek porridge recipient preschools is 97%, higher
than schools that don’t offer a meal. And, retention and progression to higher grades is at 100%. This effective program
can only continue if non-governmental organizations—such as LOPC—continue to fund this critical program.