2025 was a FULL year of serving our community and sharing the love of Jesus!

Every year, we focus on providing quality food to our neighborhood at subsidized prices and, when necessary or possible, at no charge. This year, we fed our community through:

- Our regular Cafe hours, where our foot traffic increased greatly in 2025. Our food items have flown out the door and we are so grateful to our volunteers for keeping up with the high demand!

- Our weekly, free, post-church lunch. This year we watched our church grow, with church attendance averaging 40 people each week.

- Our annual summer Community Picnics. In 2025, we saw roughly 80 people each week. We got the joy of serving and enjoying dinner with them for 12 weeks from June to September.

- We hosted a free Veterans Lunch to honor Youngstown's service members. Planned by one of our Board Members; our church members, coffee shop regulars, and other community members came together as volunteers to support this incredible event. We served about 70 veterans, with about 120 people attending the event in total.

- We got to support our wonderful church member, Heidi, in her Holy Hallelujah event yet again in 2025. This year we got to help serve hot dogs, snacks, and hot chocolate to 250-300 of our neighbors on Halloween night.

- For the first time ever, in 2025, we began offering a free, weekly community dinner in response to the Government shutdown and delays for those who rely on governmental food programs. These dinners were made possible by eager volunteers who stepped up to cook, serve, and love on our community for three Thursdays in November and three in December. We served around 130 community members a week in November, and about 80 per week in December. Attendance has decreased with the restoration of SNAP/EBT benefits, however, we have continued this community meal on a less regular basis going into 2026. 

In addition to serving our community through providing food access, we've also sought to meet needs in other ways:

- In 2025, we received a wonderful donation that allowed us to furnish our back patio and open it up for the summer months.

- Thanks to our generous donors, we were able to hire three summer interns at the Cafe. This made 2025 our second year being able to hire interns from our neighborhood!

- With quite a bit of effort and support from volunteers and donors, we were able to finish the upstairs apartment space and fill it!

- This year, we partnered with one of our teen members in a coat drive, collecting coat donations since the beginning of November. We've received more than 300 coats since we started and saw around 150 find homes in November alone. Since then, we've continued to receive donations and give them away as people have need during our community dinners and regular hours.

- We sent a team to Uganda for two weeks in July of 2025. This team got to serve in a variety of capacities while there, sharing the Gospel and watching many commit their lives to Christ! 

On Tuesday, October 7th, 2025, Pastor Gary and Cindy received the Simeon Booker Award for Courage.

This award honors a local nominee and a national nominee for their work in promoting nonviolence as a part of effective community change for civil rights and equality. The award is named for the late Simeon Booker, a Youngstown native and Civil Rights reporter.

Pastor Gary and Cindy were honored as the local award winners, alongside the national winner, lifelong Civil Rights Activist JoAnn Bland. 

Local WFMJ news station reported the following about the ceremony:

Local honorees Gary and Cindy Koerth were recognized for their ongoing work on Youngstown’s South Side. Through their nonprofit coffee shop, Glenwood Grounds, they’ve turned a once-vacant building into a welcoming hub that offers community meals, mentorship, and outreach to residents in need.

"Our call to the neighborhood, to the South Side — it was one of those things that God literally spoke to us and said, this is where I want you to be," Gary Koerth said. "It was all about serving the neighborhood so that we could build relationships and share the love of God with people."

He said the goal has always been to build unity and make lasting change, one person at a time.

"It starts one life at a time, and nobody is exempt from it," Gary Koerth added. "Everybody can make a difference with at least one person."

You can read the full article here.

Playground Ministry 2025

On the last Wednesday in August we had our last playground picnic of the summer.  We were blessed with an amazing summer of picnics.  We thank God for the peaceful closeness that our neighborhood felt as we built community and proclaimed the Name of Jesus.

Worshipping Community

We have enjoyed a summer preaching through the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. We continue to be blessed with new attenders and yet we still struggle through many issues of day to day life and crisis. Pray for our precious church body!

G.G. Café Outreach  

Please pray for our community outreach event on Sept. 13th to our veterans in the City of Youngstown.  We are hoping to have 500 veterans and guests at a BBQ Lunch.  We will set up tents in the entire parking lot and will be praying over the veterans and families. The main goal is to share the love of Christ!

Playground Ministry 2025

As of this week, we have been blessed to have our fifth playground ministry picnic of the summer of 2025. Most weeks have been very hot and humid with a couple of weeks with rain and thunderstorms. But during all of the picnics we have seen God’s love be poured out to our neighborhood. The number of people attending has been incredible but what is most amazing is the sense of real community and fellowship taking place each week. There is peace among all who attend, and many are sitting together and sharing and laughing and eating together. The Gospel is being shared through growing relationships and our weekly children’s Bible time and craft. We have also seen more families coming to the picnic because of rising food prices and the struggle to feed their families. The rainbow reminds us of Gods promises are very real as we are sent into all the world and proclaim the name of Jesus!

Worshipping Community Highlights

Last Sunday we started a series on the beatitudes. We focused on verse 1.  “Jesus saw the crowd”. As Jesus often did, he didn’t just see the physical crowd or person. Just like with Bartimaeus, Zacchaeus, the women at the well, the rich young ruler. He saw the physical, spiritual and emotional needs. As he “saw” the crowd he sat down, and they came to Him and He taught them. Taught them what a Spirit filled life would be like as they would one day see Jesus as Savior and receive power through the Holy Spirit.  

On April 27th we baptized Clarence. The brother of the young man we baptized last summer. What a blessing it was to hear him proclaim Jesus as his Savior.    

We continue to be blessed to witness new attenders almost every week! Three services in May we had nearly 50 in attendance.  

Some of you may remember the story of the man named Dave that found himself in the middle of our worship service a few months ago. Well, Dave has been back numerous times at the café for breakfast.

New Ministry Space Completed

We are pleased to announce that one of our 2nd floor apartments has been completed.  We will share more about the person who recently moved into the ministry space in the next newsletter.  

We are also pleased to announce that our outdoor deck has furniture and the landscaping completed. It will be used for Sunday Worship, Praise Nights, Additional Café space, Concerts, special ministry events, Community Events. Many of the community are very excited about this new space available in their neighborhood.

Playground Ministry

Please pray for our 2025 Playground Ministry.  We are planning to  start on Wednesday June 10th.  Once again having a weekly Gospel presentation and craft to accompany our usual hot dog community picnic. Please that God would draw and speak to adults and children who attend.  

Blessings, Gary and Cindy Koerth