Drop-ins are welcome every first and third Wednesday from 430pm to 630pm for the Supplemental Food Pantry, which is at the “rectory” house across the back lawn from the church.
Category Archives: Supplemental Food Pantry
Bags Go Out Next Week, Haunt Against Hunger Is Coming!
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Our next “bagging” will take place on Sundays October 25 and November 1. “Bagging” is shorthand for dropping a bag on neighbors’ doorsteps one Sunday and returning the next Sunday to pick it up after they have (we hope!) filled it with food for the pantry. Your help is much needed and appreciated.
Haunt Against Hunger
Tom Terranova has developed a great “food-raiser” for the pantry. The idea is simple. Children visit select homes and donate food. The more food they donate, the more opportunity they will have to win door prizes during a drawing at St. Nicholas – 3:30-4:30 on Halloween. Tom’s even developed a web site.
Tom is now lining up permission from local stores to hand out fliers in front of their businesses. This will be the main form of publicity. We need volunteers for a couple of hours on both Saturday, October 24 and Sunday, October 25. Tom also appreciates any other ideas you might have for distributing the fliers in the community the week before Halloween. Finally, a few volunteers on Halloween from 3-4:30 would help build excitement for the drawing. Contact Tom via the web address above to volunteer or ask questions. Thanks!
(Blog editor’s note: website and contact information to be added as soon as possible)
Episcopal Network for Animal Welfare: St Martin’s
As a volunteer for the Buddy Foundation, Gerry Dierks of Des Plaines has been a foster parent to dozens of homeless cats and kittens for the last several years. But then she heard a member of the Episcopal Network for Animal Welfare talk about ways to keep animals as a vital part of a church’s ministry, and from then on she knew that would be her mission. “The church has a reputation of being human centered. This was quite exciting,” she said. “This is a fledgling operation, but we hope to do more in the future.” For openers, St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Des Plaines is now included in a directory of “Animal Friendly Congregations” and is the first church in Illinois to be listed. The Episcopal Network sees ending animal cruelty as an essential task of the church, especially where neglect, cruelty, degradation and commercial exploitation are concerned.
This is a good example of a simple program that churches can start that creates interest and excitement about the Good News and ways that it can be shared and lived.
At St Nicholas with the Holy Innocents, there is an annual pet blessing in the fall, usually on the Sunday closest to the Feast of St Francis, patron saint of animals. There is also often a spring event.
Our own "simple program" is the Second Family supplemental food pantry. This is held every first and third Wednesdays at 6pm at the church, and anyone in need is welcome to drop by and pick up bags of groceries. There is no residency requirement or time limit mandated between visits, and the hours are scheduled so that working people may visit.
Good for the people of St Martin's, Des Plaines!