Outreach Ministries

Orange UMC partners with PORCH Hillsborough↗ and PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro which strive to fight hunger by collecting food and monetary donations to help stock local food pantries. Orange has co-sponsored or otherwise supported their food distribution events. We have also raised funds to support the organization as a church. If you would like to get involved, volunteers are often needed to help staff future distribution events, and both food and money donations are always accepted. Orange UMC volunteers at PORCH Hillsborough. We meet at Fairview Park in Hillsborough on the third Thursday of the month at 8:45 am. Check our News & Events page for posts about upcoming distributions.

Please contact the church office for more information.

Orange UMC partners with the American Red Cross to help host blood drives in our Fellowship Hall. When we host a drive we always need volunteers to help set-up/break-down, usher donors, and distribute snacks. We advertise the blood drives to both donors and volunteers in our weekly emails. If you would like to join our mailing list, please email the church office. Upcoming blood drives in 2026 are September 9 and November 18 from 10:00am to 2:30pm.

To donate blood, please sign-up here - https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=Orange

Share the Love Ministry is comprised of volunteers who gather regularly to fill one gallon zip lock bags with several items which are seasonally/weather based. Typically, 150 bags are completed at each assembly. These bags are for you to take and distribute to any food insecure or unhoused persons you encounter. Bags are also distributed at a Food and Clothing Center at Amity United Methodist Church and to anyone in the community in need.

The Share the Love Ministry would welcome you to join us in filling the bags on assembly days. It's easy! Those assemblies take place in the Fellowship Hall approximately every six weeks. The activity typically only takes about 30 minutes and is enjoyable fellowship. No need to sign up ahead of time.

The next Share the Love bag assembly is scheduled for September 22 at 2pm in the Orange UMC Fellowship Hall.

If you would like to donate food items for these bags, you can donate the following:

• Peanut butter crackers

• Applesauce cups

• Nature Valley Chewy protein bars

• 2.5 tuna in water pouches

• Men’s dark crew socks

• Gallon slider bags

Orange UMC launches new initiative to support the unhoused in our community.

Bags will be assembled as part of the Share the Love Bags assembly line.

Although anyone can get a shower at no cost, no hygiene products are provided.  Therefore, OUMC will provide bags filled with travel-sized (single use)  shampoo, liquid soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant, and washcloth. Please visit this complete list of items needed along with an Amazon link. Each Amazon link meets the specifications for the bags, but you are welcome to purchase elsewhere with the same specifications.

Currently, fifty bags will be assembled each month. 

Backpack Buddies is a ministry that packs backpacks for school aged children facing food insecurity. We need volunteers to help pack and distribute the backpacks, so if you would like to help, sign up here↗. If you would like to donate food items, here are food items that are needed:

Entrees: Ramen, soup, canned ravioli, mac 'n cheese cups, Vienna sausages, beans and franks, baked beans, canned chicken, microwaveable meals (shelf-stable)

Breakfasts: oatmeal packets, grits, single-serve cereal boxes, Pop-tarts, granola bars

Snacks: fruit cups, pudding cups, peanut butter or cheese crackers, single-serve goldfish, microwaveable popcorn, slim jims, individual packs of peanuts or trail mix

Other items: milk or juice boxes (shelf-stable), individual microwaveable veggie cups, plastic jars (16 oz. or smaller) of peanut butter

In 2025, Orange UMC partnered with Seawell Elementary School to provide presents for the Backpack Buddies students. Every year we partner with a local organization to make the holidays brighter for families in need.

The scholarship comes from the fund established by family and friends in memory of Avery Coy Maddry, a 1990 graduate of Chapel Hill High School and a freshman at North Carolina State University at the time of his tragic death at the age of 18 on January 7, 1991. The fund is administered through Orange, where Coy was an active member, and the award is in its 34th year, one of the church’s longest continuous ministries.

The scholarship candidates must be varsity athletic letter winners at a Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools high school who best exemplify Coy's life through qualities he demonstrated: hard work and dedication, strong academics, and exemplary character and leadership as reflected in church, school and civic activities.

An outstanding student-athlete from East Chapel Hill High School, Alison Cooper, has been named the recipient of the 2026 Coy Maddry Memorial Scholarship Award from Orange United Methodist Church. 

Cooper earned eight varsity letters, four each in field hockey and women’s lacrosse, and captained both teams during her high school career. A great student, she was a Junior Marshal and member of the National Honor Society at East Chapel Hill, and she also founded a community summer camp that has operated for several years. Very active in her faith community at University United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, she has served on the Youth Leadership Team there, is the church’s student representative to Habitat of Humanity of Orange County, and has participated in several summer mission trips. She has also earned recognition as an
Eagle Scout.

Cooper will continue her academic and athletic career in Tennessee at Sewanee: The University of the South, where she will play field hockey.

Please visit the complete list of winners.

Coaches, teachers and administrators may nominate candidates for the honor.

Memorials may still made to the Orange UMC/Coy Maddry Scholarship Fund.

Approximately 10% of OUMC’s annual budget goes toward apportionments that benefit UMC program agencies and other benevolent causes throughout the United States and the world. These include the World Service Fund, Africa University, and Black College Fund. Orange UMC has a proud history of being a Rainbow Covenant church. For more information about apportionments, check out this resource↗ from the North Carolina Conference.