OUTREACH
Outreach Ministries
Outreach Chair: Laura Nason
Outreach Co-Chair: Melissa Conway
Charlotte Family Housing
Charlotte Family Housing (CFH) is a shelter-to-housing program for families experiencing homelessness. Their mission is to empower working families to achieve long-term self-sufficiency through shelter, housing, supportive services, and advocacy. They help families achieve measurable and lasting change with a focus on dignity, self-esteem, and long term stability. Members of St. John's, in partnership with other churches and organizations, provide meals, overnight hosts, childcare, and Hope Teams for families transitioning to permanent housing.
Contact: Mamie Stichter
CLICK HERE for Individual Volunteer Opportunities
Crisis Assistance Ministries
Crisis Assistance Ministries aids people in need including emergency help with household items, clothing, utilities, rent, medical treatment, and food, as well as job placement assistance. Volunteers from St. John’s meet the second Tuesday of each month at the headquarters. There donations of clothing, home goods, books, electronics, school supplies and furniture are sorted. St. Johns provides donation barrels throughout the church. Additionally, volunteers can conduct client interviews to prepare for assistance reviews.
Contact: Kay Norwood
CLICK HERE For Individual Volunteer Opportunities
Galilee Ministries of East Charlotte
Galilee Ministries is a collaborative effort of the Charlotte Convocation of Episcopal Churches, a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, partnering with others to feed body, mind, and spirit. Galilee Ministries and partners provide wrap-around services to refugees and immigrants from around the world. St. John’s parishioners are a major source of volunteer help including regular shifts of welcoming and hospitality, staffing the Loaves and Fishes food distribution center, general maintenance opportunities, volunteer as a helper/problems solver with Refugee Support Services help center, preparing and serving the Charlotte Community Kitchen's weekly lunch, and many other one-time service projects.
Contact: Margaret Errington
CLICK HERE For Individual Volunteer Opportunities
Hagar’s Basket
Housed at St. John's in our renovated Outreach Center, Hagar's Basket is a ministry of St. John's that offers household products to families of all ages in need. Household items such as laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, diapers, and wipes are collected from parishioners which are then distributed monthly from the pantry. Volunteers are needed to help collect, sort, and stock the shelves throughout the month, find corporate sponsors, and staff the pantry the third Wednesday of every month from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m.
Contacts: Erin Richardson, Louise Palmer, Lauren Phillips, and Betsy Blalock.
Click Here for Individual Volunteer Opportunities
Kanuga Kids at Camp Bob
Each year, St. John’s partners with several local agencies to send disadvantaged children to Camp Bob at Kanuga. St. John’s raises the money and sends volunteers to help supervise at camp; the agencies (after-school programs and church/social-service organizations) select children from within their programs. The camp at Kanuga is fully staffed with trained counselors, and runs on a Monday through Friday schedule, usually in mid-July. There are many opportunities to help in this ministry. A couple of leaders are needed to organize all the pre-camp logistics: arranging for bus transportation for the kids, coordinating adult volunteers, coordinating the kids’ applications from the agencies, and acting as the fund-raising contact. Additionally, volunteers are needed to help the children check-in for the bus ride, to prepare bag lunches for the bus ride, and to travel to camp to mentor.
Contact: Ken Loeber
Loaves & Fishes
Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays provides groceries and meals through a network of food pantries and as the primary Meals on Wheels program for Mecklenburg County. According to loavesandfishes.org, the organization provided groceries and meals to 80,000 people last year. Currently, Loaves & Fishes operates 19 distribution locations within the county.
The pantry at the Galilee Center is one of the locations operated by Loaves & Fishes in Mecklenburg County to provide emergency assistance to families in need of food. It mainly serves the Central Avenue community, providing food for 2,012 people within the first half of 2022. St. John's supports the Loaves & Fishes food pantry at the Galilee Center by providing non-perishable food donations and by volunteering at the pantry location two to three times each month, on the first, third, and fifth Thursdays.
Food is supplied to Loaves & Fishes by a combination of donations by individual churches, Second Harvest Food Bank, and grocery retailers. At the Galilee Center location, it is estimated that St. John's Episcopal contributes about 10% of the food provided. After COVID-19 disrupted food distribution, Loaves & Fishes moved to a drive-through operation where families received pre-packed boxes of perishable and non-perishable food. The Galilee Center has moved back to client choice, where families have the opportunity to choose which items they want, thus reducing waste.
Contact: Louise Palmer
CLICK HERE For Individual Volunteer Opportunities
Roof Above
Volunteers provide dinner for up to 300 men on the second Saturday of every other month. St. John’s kitchen provides the delicious main course from food set aside from the Wednesday night dinners. Volunteers prepare the remainder of the meal at the Men’s Shelter. Our team of 5 or 6 individuals begins food preparation on the appointed Saturday at 4:15 pm, serves dinner at 6:00pm, and leaves around 7 pm (with men from the Men’s Shelter taking care of clean up.) Additionally, St. John's hosts an annual Souper Bowl chili party for the men. Men from the Shelter are transported to STJE where they have dinner, watch the Super Bowl, and judge a Chili Context from the parishioner's homemade chili.
Operation Sandwich Ministry: The Operation Sandwich program is committed to feeding those in need. They serve 600 sandwiches or provide 300 lunch bags each day – that is over 200,000 sandwiches/100,000 lunch bags on an annual basis. Their goal is to continue helping our neighbor’s by providing bag lunches and additional sandwiches through individual and group volunteer opportunities. St Johns Parishioners purchase supplies, make sandwiches, and drop them off at Roof Above typically once a month.
Contact: Tim Comin - Men's Shelter Dinners
Operation Sandwich - Susan Hall
Souper Bowl Party - John Patrick
CLICK HERE For Individual Volunteer Opportunities
Merry Oaks Elementary School / CIS
The ECW partners with Communities in Schools (CIS), an agency of Children & Family Services, to support Merry Oaks in numerous ways throughout the year, including a fall backpack and school supplies drive, the Win Robinson Christmas giving tree, Teacher Appreciation breakfasts, and clothing drives. STJE Volunteers can help by donating items throughout the year such as baked goods, back to school items, Christmas gifts, and clothing. Volunteers can also help serve breakfasts, sort and distribute donated items, and assist with the Christmas party.
Contact: Melissa Conway
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Thrive Global (The Lunch Project)
The Lunch Project (TLP) has merged with Thrive Global to continue providing lunch to children in five primary schools in Tanzania. TLP has created and manages a grass-roots, sustainable program which employs mothers and fathers to prepare corn porridge for the children’s lunch, contracts with local farmers to grow the corn and a local mill to grind the corn. Over 4,000 children receive lunch each school day at 5 Arusha area primary schools and graduation rates have more than doubled. TLP has also pioneered an education program for children in the U.S. teaching Empathy Education to elementary children in schools and churches on order to share the values of caring and service.
The Lunch Project partners with the youth of St. John’s by sponsoring Fill the Bowl, an annual youth event to raise funds for The Lunch Project. For this event, middle and high school youth raise funds, fast for 30 or 40 hours and camp out in a cardboard tent city on church grounds.
Contact: Sarah Brock Rhodes
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