In His earthly ministry Christ worked out a pattern for His followers to copy. He “went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed" (Acts 10:38). Christ’s work in behalf of man is not finished. It continues today. The church was created for service. It serves the Lord in praise, serves one another in love, and serves the world in humility. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." (Eph. 2:10). Under the umbrella of Community services headed by Belle Ganzon are: Food Bank , Touch of Love and New Immigrant Support Program.
Food Bank
Mount Zion Food Bank Resource Centre opened on June 9, 2002. This is one of the Community Service arms of the Mt. Zion Filipino Seventh-Day Adventist Church working to fulfill its multi-faceted mission on this earth. The Food Bank operating from the basement of 140 St. Regis Cres. is able to run this food bank through its partnership with North York Harvest Food Bank and through the support of donations from organizations like ADRA Canada and also church members. An extended service also is the distribution of clothing (slightly used ) to our food bank clients and community friends. The Centre is open twice a month supported and manage by a team of volunteers .
Touch of Love
The Community Services have been involved with the Touch of Love program since 1998. We started in the basement of the United Metropolitan Church in downtown Toronto, and later moved to the St. Luke's United Church, aka the Berea Seventh-day Adventist Church, located on 353 Sherbourne St., Toronto. We serve between 120-150 meals to the homeless, once every two months, on the fourth Tuesday of the month. After dinner some of our guests request for "take out", either to give to their family member or for their next meal.
In 2017, Mount Zion decided to bring home this "Touch of Love" program locally and hold the feeding in our church once a quarter.
The senior members of our church volunteer regularly, together with some of the youths and the young adults.
New Immigrant Support Program
New Immigration Program was first established, in the year 2003, in partnership with SEPYR (Settlement & Education Partnership of York Region) and CCSYR (Catholic Community Services of York Region) under the initiative of Lani Aguinaldo. This event is conducted once a year notably to our new Immigrants in various venues (including Mount Zion) within the York Region. Resource areas include, assertiveness training, job search workshop, stress management, adjusting to family life in Canada, harassment in workplace, assistance in recognition of personal credentials in Canada and much more...