From Capital Christian Center to Capital Compassion: A Hundred Years on Sacramento Soil
Capital Compassion runs a busy warehouse and outreach center on Croydon Way in southeastern Sacramento, where volunteers hand out roughly 150 grocery bags a month to neighbors facing food insecurity and staff a homeless respite center with showers and laundry. The ministry launched in September 2023 as a community outreach arm growing out of Capital Christian Center, a Sacramento church whose roots stretch back to 1916. In February 2024, Capital Compassion officially incorporated as its own nonprofit.
The Capital name has been part of Sacramento life for more than a century. The original congregation began in the home of Mrs. William Hatfield, wife of a Sacramento attorney, then moved to a storefront in Oak Park in 1916, rented the Pythian Castle at 9th and I Streets in 1917, built at 21st and K Streets in 1922, moved to 21st and W Streets in 1940, and then to Howe Avenue and Fair Oaks Boulevard in 1964 before settling at its long-time home on Micron Avenue in 1984. The church celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2016.
Looking back at those first hundred years, the accomplishments include more than $40 million given to world missions, more than 100,000 Sacramento-area residents reached, fifty-eight seasons of the Singing Christmas Tree outreach with 750,000 people in attendance, and a Christian school that grew from a handful of students in 1977 to more than a thousand students before graduating more than 3,000 alumni. The church also helped plant several congregations that still serve the region, including Harvest Church in Elk Grove, Horizon Christian Center in Laguna, Destiny Christian Church in Rocklin, Grace Community Church in Elk Grove, and Project Church in downtown Sacramento.
Capital Christian Center no longer hosts weekly worship services, and the Micron Avenue property has been leased to Destiny Christian Church. The Compassion ministry that grew out of the church now carries the mission forward under its own name.
The Food Pantry on Croydon Way
More than 287,500 Sacramento County residents live with food insecurity, the inability to access affordable, nutritious food. Capital Compassion's Food Pantry is the ministry's most visible daily work.
The pantry operates Tuesday through Thursday from 9am to 11am at 10173 Croydon Way, Suite 4B, Sacramento. Service is currently limited to households in the 95670, 95655, 95826, and 95827 ZIP codes. Guests who are housed can pick up groceries once per month. Guests who are unhoused can receive a bag of food once per week. Diapers are available once per month for families who need them.
About 30 people walk through the warehouse doors every day, sometimes more, looking for food, supplies, IDs, phones, EBT help, or simply a friendly face. On average, the team distributes around 150 grocery bags each month, packed by volunteers and by participants in the CARE special needs job program. A separate mobile food pantry, launched with the help of a grant-funded refrigerated van, delivers groceries to seniors with disabilities who cannot make it to the warehouse.
Volunteers are welcome to sign up for grocery giveaways and other outreach events. The team also partners with local schools and charter groups to host pop-up distributions across the region. Amazon Wishlists for housed food bags, unhoused food bags, and outreach supplies allow donors to ship items directly to the warehouse.
Walking Beside the Unhoused
Sacramento County has one of the largest chronic individual homeless populations in the United States. Capital Compassion's Homeless Initiatives ministry responds with practical help, long-term companionship, and a willingness to drive across town when a phone call is missed.
The Compassion Respite Center, housed in the same Croydon Way facility, opens Monday through Thursday from 9am to 12pm. Guests can get food assistance, help with state IDs, EBT cards, and phones, showers by appointment after meeting set goals, referrals to city Homeless Navigators, resume building, and job application help. The team partners with case managers and peer specialists to walk individuals from the street toward stable housing.
On the third Saturday of every month, volunteers head into the community to distribute about 150 bags of snacks, toiletries, and a fresh lunch directly to people living outside. Staff regularly drive guests to intake appointments, transport them to rehab programs, and have even searched neighborhoods by car to find someone who missed a shelter call because her phone was dead. More than once, that kind of persistence has moved a guest from a tent into a tiny home.
Several guests who first came in for groceries have moved into tiny homes, transitional housing, or reunited with family. A few have come back to volunteer and give away the same compassion they received.
Pastor Rick Cole, the ministry's founder, has lived on the streets himself and wrote about the experience in his book Incarnate: Jesus Among the Broken. He continues to work with city leaders on broader solutions to homelessness in Sacramento and speaks at regional gatherings, including a recent community conversation about homelessness at the Tiburon Library.
Standing with Refugees
California is home to roughly 10.7 million immigrants, and about 418,800 of them live in Sacramento. Capital Compassion's Refugee Assistance program helps new arrivals set up households and rebuild their lives.
The team works alongside World Relief and other local partners to set up apartments, donate essential household goods, assist with food, and help families navigate social services. Through a partnership with World Vision, full semi-truck deliveries of furniture, microwaves, heaters, tea kettles, towels, and other supplies arrive at the warehouse. A $900 contribution covers a World Vision truckload worth about $30,000 in goods; $200 provides up to $2,000 in household items for a single family.
In one recent Christmas outreach, volunteers partnered with a North Sacramento charter school to bring gifts, microwaves, heaters, and groceries to 150 Ukrainian families who had been in the United States for less than six months after fleeing the war. The ministry has also delivered sewing machines to refugee women to help them start small businesses, supplied stuffed animals and diapers to refugee children, and walked alongside families as they applied for benefits and enrolled children in school.
CARE: Work for Adults with Disabilities
Capital Compassion runs a program called CARE that provides job opportunities for adults with special needs and disabilities. Participants work alongside volunteers in the warehouse, packing grocery bags and hygiene kits, organizing donations, and learning job skills in a supportive environment. The program is being expanded as the ministry moves into a larger facility and is part of Capital Compassion's broader vision to help people move from crisis to stability and contribution.
The POD Network: Multiplying Compassion Through Partner Churches
Capital Compassion's Point of Distribution, or POD, program is the engine that turns donated goods into outreach across Northern California. National retailers and suppliers send truckloads of household items, hygiene products, and other goods-in-kind to the warehouse. Local churches and nonprofits can apply to become POD partners, attend an orientation, pick up supplies from the warehouse, and distribute them to neighbors in their own communities.
Partners range from large Sacramento-area congregations to Armenian and Slavic churches, Nazarene and Pentecostal congregations, and nonprofits serving refugees, recovery, hospice care, and youth. The result is a wide network of faith and community groups multiplying every donated dollar through volunteer hours and goods-in-kind.
Outside partners also include nonprofit organizations such as Acres of Hope, Capital Community Athletics, The Foundation, EDS Learning Institute, Kingdom Roar Ministries, New Beginnings Gold Country, RC Hospice Care, COREY Integrated Community Support, Sowing Love Ministries, Christian Encounter Ministries, Community Health Works, Folsom Cordova Community Partnership, Gateway Community Charters, LOG Ministries, New Life USA in Nevada, Sacramento Youth Center, Community Against Sexual Harm, City of Refuge Sacramento, Color the Block, New Morning Youth and Family Services, Generous Heart Charity, Mercy Holistic Ministry, Passion Mission Charity, Gathering Inn, and Inspirada Technology.
Capital Compassion also hosts community events across Sacramento. Volunteers have helped with the Rosemont Park celebration, set up tables and inflatables at Hops and Hounds in midtown, and partnered with charter schools for grocery giveaways. The ministry is a participating agency in the Sacramento Continuum of Care Homeless Management Information System.
The Team Behind the Mission
Rev. Rick Cole is the Founder and Executive Director. He served as Senior Pastor of Capital Christian Center for more than two decades before retiring in September 2023 to expand the outreach ministry. He is an active ally for social justice with a hands-on focus on racial reconciliation and homelessness, and has led global missions teams around the world. He is the author of Incarnate: Jesus Among the Broken. He lives in California with his wife Cathy; they have three children and five grandchildren.
Laine Alves serves as Director of Outreach and Community Collaboration, coordinating partnerships, events, and the network of POD churches and nonprofits. Crystal Molnar serves as Director of Operations, and Lisa Berry serves as Director of Development and Human Resources.
A volunteer board of directors oversees the ministry and includes leaders in business, medicine, and pastoral care, including Joe Alves, CEO and Founder of CA Home Loans; Shadi Barfjani, MD, MSC, Senior Deputy Director of San Joaquin County Public Health Services; Dr. Samuel Gordon, Pastor of City Connect Ministries at Trinity Life Center; and Lou Vismara, MD, a founding member of the UC Davis MIND Institute, the State of California's First Five Commission, and the California Legislative Blue Ribbon Commission.
What They Believe: To Live as Jesus Among the Broken
Capital Compassion's stated mission is to live as Jesus among the broken through both word and deed, telling people about Jesus and teaching them to follow Him. The ministry holds to a straightforward statement of Christian faith: that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, that His humanity as well as His divinity gives believers confidence, and that salvation comes through believing in the Lord Jesus. A short prayer of commitment is offered for anyone ready to begin a relationship with Christ.
The ministry's broader public theology is shaped by Micah 6:8, to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God. The team has also made a public commitment to racial reconciliation, pledging to pray for unity, build diverse leadership, increase service to the underserved, and provide diversity training for staff. A sermon series titled Diversity in the Church laid out practical next steps for individuals: broaden your circle, tell your story, be empathetic, love others as Christ has loved you, embrace unity, and remember that all people are created in the image of God.
Devotional life is encouraged through the SOAP method, an acronym for Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer. The ministry recommends the Bible Project reading plan and the YouVersion and Read Scripture apps, and a one-year reading plan is available for download.
Getting Help, Volunteering, and Giving
Capital Compassion keeps its doors open to anyone in the Sacramento region who needs help. The Food Pantry and Respite Center operate out of 10173 Croydon Way, Suite 4, Sacramento. The food pantry is open Tuesday through Thursday from 9am to 11am. The respite center is open Monday through Thursday from 9am to 12pm. Office hours are Monday through Thursday from 9am to 3pm. A separate mobile food pantry delivers groceries to seniors with disabilities who cannot travel.
Anyone in need of food, household goods, refugee assistance, or help with homelessness can reach the team by phone at (916) 856-5683 or by email at info@capitalcompassion.org. An online Get Help form is also available.
Volunteers serve in the warehouse, at grocery giveaways, on monthly homeless outreach days, and alongside partner churches and nonprofits. Volunteer orientation and sign-up happen online. Internship opportunities are posted for those interested in learning more about nonprofit community development work.
Donations can be made online through SecureGive, by mail to Capital Compassion, P.O. Box 276267, Sacramento, CA 95827, or by purchasing items directly from the ministry's Amazon Wishlists for housed food bags, unhoused food bags, and outreach supplies. A donation of $30 provides a bag of groceries and a fresh lunch for someone without housing; $40 provides a family-sized grocery bag; $200 provides up to $2,000 in household goods for a family; and $900 covers a World Vision truck delivery worth about $30,000.
Looking Ahead: A Larger Space, A Refrigerated Van, A Growing Network
Capital Compassion moved into its current Croydon Way facility in mid-2025, opening the new Respite Center in July and the Food Pantry a day later. The new building includes showers, laundry, a loading dock for incoming truckloads of goods, and dedicated space for the CARE special needs job program.
The team has acquired a refrigerated van, made possible through a grant, to launch the mobile food pantry for seniors with disabilities. The POD network continues to grow, and the ministry is actively seeking more churches and nonprofits to join as distribution partners.
At the heart of the work is a simple belief: every person matters. Whether the team is packing a grocery bag, driving someone to rehab, furnishing a refugee's first apartment, or praying with a guest who has just asked what John 3:16 means, the ministry's purpose is to meet people where they are and walk with them toward hope.