Youth and adults from St. Joseph's, ages 14 and older, volunteer as a group at The Father's Heart Ministries, a faith-based 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, on the last Saturday of each month in its Hunger Prevention Program - a "fighting poverty initiative."
The program consists of a soup kitchen and food pantry, open every Saturday except the first Saturday of the month, from 10 to 11 AM.
Volunteers leave St. Joseph's no later than 7:15 a.m., to help set up for the approximately 350 to 600+ guests who are fed in the soup kitchen on any given Saturday. They return to the church no later than 12:30 p.m. The guests are served freshly prepared eggs, potatoes, sausage, bread, fruit, juice, coffee and milk.
This outreach ministry enables us as lay persons "to represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to Him wherever we may be; and, according to the gifts given us, to carry on Christ's work of reconciliation in the world; and to take our place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church." (2 Corinthians 5:17-20 and The Catechism, BCP, p. 855)
Anyone wishing to volunteer must be willing to remain the entire time and must notify either Hyacinth Hutchinson (primary contact) or La Verne Mitchell (secondary contact), in advance.
St. Joseph's has a commitment to bring no more than 10 volunteers each month.
"If you want to be important, wonderful. If you want to be recognized, wonderful. If you want to be great, wonderful. But recognize that he is who is greatest among you, shall be a servant ... Everybody can be great ... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve ... you only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love ... You can be that servant." From the Drum Major speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.