OASIS
We served twelve times a year at Oasis. Breakfast is served every fourth Sunday of every month. We average about seventy-five people each time we serve. A group of St. Christopher’s volunteers serve the meal and clean up afterwards. St. Christopher’s has been serving at Oasis for over twenty years.
HOLIDAY BASKETS
In 1997, St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church sponsored a family for Christmas. This was the typical angel tree and we had gifts for the kids, parent and shopping cards for Wal-Mart and Foodlion. We spent over $800.00 on this one family. They were appreciative and definitely had a wonderful Christmas that year. Some of us thought that we could serve a lot more families in need with the $800.00 by doing something different. At that time, St. Christopher’s was a host church for SHARE, a non-profit community building organization, offering a nutritious food package ($28 – $30 value) to anyone for $14.00 and two hours of community service. During the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, Share offered a holiday basket with all the fixings that would serve a family of 4 – 6 people for $15.00. We figured that by buying the holiday baskets and distributing them, we could serve many more families rather than supporting one family with an angel tree. In 1998, we applied for the Seeds of Hope Grant through the Dioceses of Southern Virginia. The grant provides a one time $1500 seed grant to parishes looking to provide a service to the community. We got it. We decided that each following year we would use the Christmas loose offering to start off the fund raising for the holiday baskets each year. In 1998, we had enough to purchase and distribute 104 baskets. Through the Christmas offering, Virginia Juvenile Justice and private donations we raise enough funds to purchase our goal of baskets each year. We get the referrals through VJJA, Full Circle and Oasis Social Ministries and all of the recipients our in the Tidewater\Hampton Roads area. Most of them live in Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Suffolk.
1998 – 104 baskets
2009 – 193 baskets
FULL CIRCLE
Full Circle is a monthly ministry that a small group of St. Christopher’s volunteers get together each month and prepare TV dinner like meals for individuals who suffer from AIDS. They prepare on an average of 70 meals a month. These meals are distributed to individuals all over Tidewater by Full Circle.
SERVING DINNER TO THE HOMELESS AT RESURECTION
We are a support church to the Church of the Resurrection who is a one of the host churches with the Portsmouth Volunteers for the Homeless. They provide a place for the homeless to sleep two weeks out of the winter, usually a week in November and a week in March. St. Christopher’s provides the meals and volunteers to serve dinner each night. We cook and prepare the meal at St. Christopher’s and transport it to Resurrection. The average number of homeless in a given night is approximately 40 people.
MRS. WOODHOUSE
Mrs. Woodhouse is an elderly lady with serious medical problems who was referred to us due to a situation where she fell through the cracks of the system. She is the typical example of someone who is living off of social security and is expected to pay rent, utilities, prescriptions and medical expenses. She has shared with me that there have been months where she has chosen to purchase food instead of medicine and vise versa. We sponsor her every month with six to eight bags of groceries each month. This has helped her pay for medication and not have to be faced with the decision of medication or food.
FOOD PANTRY
Our food pantry was started to help support the times we went to serve at Oasis, homeless and Mrs. Woodhouse. This has grown into a ministry all on its own. We have helped so many families it is impossible to count (well we do now in order to track of the 5000). Some examples are as follows:
Example 1: A family was put in a terrible financial position when the father was arrested (later to find out wrongfully arrested). He was the sole provider and this left the mother to care for three young children and a teenager. The rent was due and there was nothing to eat in the house. Through a counselor working with the family, we set the family up with groceries enough to cover a couple of weeks. We even had fruit juice, kids’ cereal, and cookies in the pantry. The family was appreciative. This got them by enough until other supportive services were put into place. The mother got a part-time job and the father eventually got out of jail and got his job back.
Example 2: We supported a family who moved here from Mexico. The father was a construction worker and the mother a waitress. The father was unable to work due to weather they fell short of money. The food pantry provided enough assistance to get them through until he was able to get paid again.
Example 3: A mother with two teenage boys just got back on her feet and into her own place. We provided groceries to help get them started and have that extra financial edge.
These are some examples of families we have supported over the years. We do not ask why they are in the situation nor do we qualify the family. Whether it is bad luck or poor choices we support because we can.
In 2001, we served over 4000 meals and set the goal of feeding the 5000. In 2002, we just met that goal by serving 5007 meals. This year we served over 5500 meals and are shooting for the goal of 6000 for the next year. This will take much support from everyone at St. Christopher’s. From bringing in canned and boxed goods every week, helping prepare meals for the homeless or praying for our outreach programs. Everyone has a part in this ministry.
