The Christian Outreach Ministry would like to thank all of the parishioners who donated groceries and money for our Thanksgiving and Christmas Food projects.  We would also like to thank the volunteers who helped sort and distribute the groceries and the Christmas gifts.  Thanks again for sharing your time with us.
 

   St. Mary’s Christian Outreach Ministry is involved in efforts to reduce hunger in our local area      and to fight drug abuse throughout Maryland and southern Pennsylvania.

Holiday Food Projects

Our ministry distributes food vouchers and groceries to local low-income Maryland and Pennsylvania families for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  The families are provided to us by the Mason-Dixon Community Services organizations.

St. Mary’s provides a voucher for each of our client families. The vouchers are redeemed at Saubel’s Shurfine Market in Whiteford. The vouchers cover the costs of the basic items needed to make a holiday dinner.  Three collections are taken up by St. Mary’s during the year to cover the costs of the vouchers.

Our ministry obtains donated grocery bags from Saubel’s, identifies the groceries that are needed for the various holidays, prepares the bags for distribution to St. Mary’s parishioners, distributes the bags after each Mass, collects the filled bags, and then sorts and bags the groceries and distributes the filled bags to each of our client families. 

For Christmas, our ministry supports the Belles of St. Mary’s and their Giving Tree project. This effort provides gifts for the children in our client families.  Our ministry works closely with the Belles to make sure that they have the necessary information about each client family.  We distribute the gifts along with the Christmas groceries.
Here are the Stats for 2017:

Easter 2017 - 26 families served (55 adults, 54 children) - 25 volunteers

Thanksgiving 2017 - 13 families served (26 adults, 30 children) - 48 volunteers

Christmas 2017 - 34 families served (67 adults, 77 children) - 33 volunteers.

Since 2010, our Ministry has served over 650 families which included over 1200 adults and over 1400 children.

Over 800 of St. Mary's parishioners volunteered to make this all possible.

We have a small core group of volunteers.  And we’ve been blessed with large numbers of volunteers who come out and help with the sorting and bagging of the groceries.

Our client families have experienced just about every type of misfortune possible. They are very appreciative of our efforts and of the generosity shown by the parishioners of St. Mary’s.

Drug Awareness

Our ministry also provides photocopying and postage support for a parishioner’s Drug Awareness program.

The program is focused on helping young adults (middle school and older) to avoid the temptations of drugs and alcohol.  It also provides tips for parents and family members. The main goals of this ministry are to provide young adults with a bit of knowledge and a lot of encouragement to live their lives to the fullest without drugs and alcohol.

Contact Bob Hoopert (410-692-4157 / crhoopert@zoominternet.net) for more information about either of these activities.