Outreach Committee Mission
The mission of the St. John’s Outreach Committee is to respond to basic human need when support is not readily available from other sources. We take seriously the charge of Jesus to feed the hungry, provide shelter to the homeless, provide medical attention to those in distress and attend to the needs of the most vulnerable in our society.
Proposals which benefit large groups have priority over those which benefit a single individual. We do not provide funding to capital improvement projects or political campaigns.
Onging Projects
The Snohomish Community Kitchen
St. John’s started and continues to participate in the Snohomish Community Kitchen which now exists as its own non-profit organization. Meals are served at St. John’s on Mondays and Thursdays every week by about ten different churches in the community.
St. John’s cooks the dinner on the third Thursday of every other month.
If you would like to volunteer to cook, serve or clean up call the St. John’s office at 360-568-4622 or contact us by email at
office@stjohnsnohomish.org. The office is staffed most mornings. Cooking and set-up for all of the dinner is in the afternoon, serving is at 4:30 p.m. and clean-up lasts until 6 p.m.
Central Elementary School
For four years St. John’s has given assistance to the children of Central Elementary School in Snohomish. We have provided to teachers supplemental teaching materials and educational supplies. In 2008 the program received $3,500.
Food Bank Support
Cash donations and foodstuffs collected on Sundays are given to the Snohomish, Monroe and Sultan food banks.
Health and Hygiene Project
The Outreach Committee has begun supplying hygiene items at the Thursday Community Dinner.
Prison Ministries Project
The Committee has proposed and hopes to implement a project to reach out to incarcerated fathers to help them maintain or renew their relationship with families, and, in particular, their children. We hope to provide children’s books to fathers so they may read to their children on tape and mail the book and the tape to their children.
Grants
While not all grant-funded initiatives are listed here, the following list provides some examples of grants that St. John’s Outreach Committee has awarded:
- Financial support to Matthew House, a ministry to prisoners’ families in Monroe. In addition, at Christmas the entire parish participates in a giving tree project to provide gifts for prisoners’ families.
- The Jim Hanson Shoe Fund, a Snohomish School-district effort to provide shoes to school children; Jim Hanson was a teacher and long-time parish member.
- The local and national Red Cross and national Episcopal relief agencies when disasters occur.
- Financial support since its inception in 2003 to The St. Petersburg (Russia) Children’s Hospice.