Covenant Presbyterian Church - Charlotte, NC

serve in the community
and the world

Connecting our gifts and passions with service to our neighbors

Our local and global outreach ministries aim to connect people's gifts and passions with service to our neighbors, building caring and nurturing relationships with people struggling with poverty, homelessness or hunger.
How would you like to share your gifts? Here are several of the ministries and partners that we support.

Room In the Inn on Christmas Eve and New years Eve

Tuesday, December 24 and December 31
Covenant has the honor of celebrating this holiday season with our neighbors experiencing homelessness on both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. While much of the evening, night and morning remain as a normal Room in the Inn night, we want to provide a grander evening. You are invited to participate by preparing food in advance and/or serving our neighbors. Your help is much appreciated! 

Highland Renaissance Academy

Read, Roar, Soar!  
Read with a 3rd Grader

Volunteers are needed to join in reading and sharing books once a month with  3rd graders.  We will be visiting classrooms on Tuesday's from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m..  No prep work is required.  You’ll be in a classroom with other volunteers to help children select books.  We share a little about the books and then help the children choose one to take home with them and spend some time reading together.  
Contact Alan Morrow for more information.

Kindergarten Tutoring
Tuesday or Thursday Mornings 

Volunteer for one-on-one tutoring with 3 kindergarten students (20 minutes each, same students each week) working on sight with vocabulary and reading. Tutors work on beginning sight words using word cards, writing and tracing words, reading a simple, patterned book to student.  Tutor & student read together, then student reads alone.
Contact Betty Graybeal for more information.

Teacher Appreciation Snacks and Brunches

During the school year, Covenant embraces those who nurture students at Highland day-after-day. We provide our traditional monthly brunches and periodic snack carts, delivering goodies and refreshing drinks to teachers as a reminder that what they do matters – a lot – throughout  the day.  In May, Covenant will host Teacher Appreciation Week at Highland.  There are a variety of ways to help out!  Sign up here

Responding to Community Hunger needs

Distribute Groceries at Highland Renaissance Academy

Serve Breakfast Once A Month at Roof Above

 Thank you for volunteering to partner with Second Harvest Mobile Food Pantry to help distribute groceries to familes in the Highland Renaissance Academy area. We meet each month at Highland (125 West Craighead Road) from 4:00 to 6:00 pm. 
Covenant participates in a long time partnership between area churches and Roof Above. We provide  cook teams and meal services to guests of the Roof Above Levine Men's Shelter (3406 Statesville Avenue) once per month, on the 4th Wednesday morning. This is a great opportunity to provide a hot meal and  fellowship to these neighbors. Volunteers prepare, serve and help clean up. It is a meaningful and enjoyable time. No special skills required!

Dinner for Neighbors @ Roof Above
Fifth Tuesdays Each Month

On fifth Tuesdays (about 4 times a year), volunteers from Covenant serve donated Texas Hash casseroles to neighbors who rely on the shelter. Casseroles, desserts and fresh fruit are needed for each meal, and people (older than 16) are invited to serve the meal at the shelter. 

Sort food at Nourish Up
(formerly Loaves and Fishes)
Second and Fourth Tuesdays 

Food insecurity will affect nearly 1 in 5 North Carolina residents in 2021. Loaves & Fishes has launched temporary mobile pantries across the city. Covenant folks can sort food twice each month from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. or sign up to be a delivery driver here.

Operation Sandwich
First Mondays Every Month

You can make 25 sandwiches and bring them to church, where we will be outside to collect and deliver directly to Roof Above's day services center. 

Want to Learn more about serving in the Community?

We would love to hear from you. Drop us a line and we'll get back to you shortly.

Meet Our Community Service Leader

Moore Place

Mandy Rencher, Director of Mission and Outreach

Nikki Zimmermann, Pastoral Resident for Mission and Outreach

Mandy grew up in Gastonia and is a lifelong Presbyterian. She is a graduate of Davidson College and earned her Master of Arts in Education from Wake Forest University. She was a classroom teacher for sixteen years, primarily at Trinity Episcopal School and Charlotte Latin School. Most recently, she served at Myers Park Presbyterian Church for five years as the Children’s Ministry Coordinator and particularly loved helping children and families grow in their faith through outreach and mission.
Nikki was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia before heading to UNC-Chapel Hill for undergraduate studies. After college, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee as part of the 2016 Teach for America Corps where she taught 6th grade ELA. From Nashville, Nikki moved to Princeton, New Jersey to begin her studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. During her third year in the Master of Divinity program, Nikki served as the Pastor of Sunday Worship at Kingston United Methodist in Kingston, NJ.