The Wolfville Inter-Church Council was founded in 1970 by the churches in the area as a form of ecumenical Christian commitment to address perceived spiritual and social needs. The Council, which was renamed the Wolfville Area Inter-Church Council in 1978, has spun off numerous projects such as the Dorcas Shoppe to provide inexpensive clothing for low income families (since closed), Senior Citizen Housing which developed into Blomidon View Manor, the existing Meals-on-Wheels program, and most ambitious of all the Interchurch Housing Society which created decent affordable housing for poverty stricken families and whose success made it the subject of two National Film Board documentaries.
Since 1973 the Wolfville Area Inter-Church Council in conjunction with various community organizations such as the Wolfville Rotary Club and the Wolfville Lions Club has operated a Christmas Food Program. In 1979 a year round Emergency Food Relief program was added and the first general appeal for donations from the whole community was instituted. These two food programs currently represent the major on-going social commitment of the Council and cover the area in which the supporting congregations are located.
The spiritual needs of the community have been attended to by a continuing program of public seminars, lectures, workshops, and religious services organized by the Council and financed out of annual dues paid by the member churches. These churches also contribute financially to the food programs in addition to moneys donated by individual members of their congregations and various church organizations.
Though the Council has received occasional government grants for specific purposes, overall funding has come almost entirely from this area. Moreover the Council’s activities and the projects it has shepherded over the years would not have been possible without the participation of hundreds of volunteers from the local community.