The teachers at Spotswood Ele­men­tary School would have been happy with bagels and cream cheese. The breakfast that Immanuel Mennonite Church set out for them on the day they returned to school was a lot better.

It served up encouragement as well as food.

A note beside a hot tater tot casserole said, “Thank you for teaching our tots.” Another said, “Welcome back. We’re cheering you on. We think you are essential and amazing. We’re glad you are our neighbors.”

It wasn’t the first time the Harrisonburg, Va., congregation had provided a meal for teachers and staff at Spotswood Elementary.

“Teachers expect crumbs,” said Melissa Marquez Weaver, an Immanuel member who organized the breakfast. “When we provide an abundance, they feel particularly appreciated.”

Immanuel has always valued racial reconciliation and a strong connection to its neighborhood.

In the 1990s, when Sara and Gerald Wenger Shenk provided leadership in Immanuel’s early years, they canvassed Harrisonburg’s historically African American northeast neighborhood and asked, “What do you need?”

The overwhelming response was affordable childcare.

So, they opened a childcare center and named it the Roberta Webb Childcare Center after an African American elementary school educator who taught in the neighborhood. The center operated in the church basement for 30 years until it closed in June. The congregation has begun a process to reimagine how best to serve the neighborhood.

Immanuel’s ministry with Spotswood Elementary, where children from the church’s neighborhood are enrolled, has taken various forms. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Immanuel offered itself as a remote learning center where children without internet access could go online in a socially distanced space.

Two years ago, when Marquez Weaver joined Immanuel’s staff part-time, she asked the Spotswood principal, Brendon Derstine, what the school needed. In response, Immanuel has provided appreciation breakfasts and lunches to the teachers and staff; donated art and educational supplies; compiled and helped fulfill an Amazon Wish List in cooperation with the Parent-Teacher Association; provided snacks and drinks for summer school staff; organized and volunteered at the Spotswood Winter Bucks store, which uses an educational rewards system for students to “purchase” gifts for themselves and their families; and cleaned up trash and weeds from the schoolyard.

Pastor Matthew Bucher, who speaks Arabic and whose oldest son attends Spotswood Elementary, helped with the school’s Arabic Club last year.

On a hot August morning, five men from the church rebuilt the school’s wooden Gaga Ball pit, which had been vandalized.

“Immanuel has been a consistent partner,” Derstine wrote. “Our staff and students are grateful for the many ways we have been supported. The staff know they are appreciated.”

For six years prior to the pandemic, Immanuel ran a midweek Kid’s Club featuring games, singing, a Bible story and snacks. Once a month the church provided a carry-in meal for the kids and their parents. Bacon or other pork products were prohibited to accommodate Muslim children.

One part of Kids Club was the “walking bus”: two adults who walked through the neighborhood gathering youngsters and accompanying them to the church. A Spotswood schoolteacher often helped with the club, and the children would shout out his name with glee whenever they saw him.

Immanuel’s neighborhood engagement is not a church-growth strategy. It is rooted in the congregation’s understanding of who they are and what God calls them to be.

That sentiment is expressed in Im­manuel’s tag line, printed on each Sunday’s bulletin: “Real people following Jesus’ radical call to love and service.”