Outreach Activities

Our Vision

The St. Chad’s Outreach Committee Vision is to be the preeminent local Outreach asset; reaching out and assisting deserving organizations with ever-increasing physical and fiscal resources.

Our Mission

The St. Chad’s Episcopal Church Outreach Committee Mission is to bring relief, in God’s name, to those suffering within our community, by giving our time, talents, and treasure.

St. Chad's focuses its support on the following organizations. Click on a link in the list below to read more information about specific outreach activities:

Roadrunner Food Bank

Storehouse

Project Share

Joy Junction

St. Martin's Hospitality Center

Nets for Life

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Roadrunner Food Bank

Roadrunner Food Bank has been serving New Mexico’s hungry since 1980 and is a leader in creating solutions to end hunger in New Mexico. One out of six New Mexicans suffer from hunger. Since its inception thirty years ago, Roadrunner Food Bank has distributed more than 200 million pounds of food. That’s more than 6000 truckloads!

Storehouse

The Storehouse provides food to people in Albuquerque who are hungry. Our parish collects dry pinto beans for the Storehouse at every service. You can bring any size bag of beans to church with you on Sunday. Just leave them by the entrance to the Sanctuary, and they will be blessed during the offering. You can also leave cash donations in the Bean Can located on the table in the foyer, or make a check out to St. Chad's with "Storehouse" or "Beans" on the memo line. Cash donations are turned over to the Storehouse so they can buy beans in bulk at very low prices. The following table shows how many pounds of beans St. Chad's has donated over the years. Help keep the bean count rising!

 

Project Share

On the third Monday of every month, St. Chad's provides dinner at Project Share, a non profit organization that has been feeding the hungry and homeless in Albuquerque for over 25 years, in an environment which fosters the opportunity for growth, education, and change. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the church’s involvement in Project Share, we ask for people to either bring prepared food in or come to the church the morning of the meal to help with cooking, depending on the menu. We also ask for people to bring in brownies or cookies, and to help with set up or serving at Project Share.

With the economy in bad shape, you may find that you have less cash to contribute to charity than you had before. But contributing to Project Share is a low-cost, hands-on way to make a difference, right here in Albuquerque. If you haven’t joined in before, please consider doing so now. And if you can come down to help serve or set up, you will discover a face of hunger that you may not know existed: clean, sober people, who may well have jobs, but are having trouble making ends meet. We can guarantee that you will be enriched by your experience, and you will more than likely have some fun as well!

Joy Junction

Joy Junction is a place of refuge to those who have been forced into the streets. As many as 300 women, children and families count on Joy Junction each day for food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and an array of other services. While Joy Junction is the largest homeless shelter in New Mexico, it is much more than a homeless shelter. It is also a Gospel Rescue Mission that is committed to restoring precious lives which have been forgotten and abandoned by society.

St. Martin's Hospitality Center

St. Martin's Hospitality Center is one of New Mexico's largest multi-program providers of services for the homeless. Founded in 1985 by volunteers from local Episcopal churches, the agency is now a private, nonsectarian 501(c)3 organization that partners with community, municipal, state, and federal agencies in pursuit of its mission: "to assist homeless and near-homeless people by providing resources, opportunities, and hope."

Nets for Life

The kids and youth at St. Chad’s have been challenged to save their pennies this summer for the Nets for Life program, a Faith-based partner of Episcopal Relief and Development. NetsforLife® brings together corporations, foundations, faith-based organizations and private donors in a collaborative initiative focused on eliminating malaria, a disease which kills one million people every year, most of them small children. The funds collected will purchase malaria nets that are used to cover the beds for those living in sub-Saharan Africa to protect them from mosquitoes. Up to three people can sleep under one net. Since malaria is caused by a parasite transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito, these nets can literally save lives! Each net costs $12, and the kids are hoping to be able to donate hundreds of dollars by the end of the summer, helping hundreds or even thousands of people. They will be bringing their collection boxes to the first day of Christian Education in the Fall, August 29th. In addition, the Outreach Committee has designated up to $1000 in matching funds for all donations made by that date. You can pick up a collection box in the foyer or simply drop a check to St. Chad's in the collection plate with "Nets for Life" on the memo line.

For a list of other social and religious organizations affiliated with St. Chad's, please visit the Organizations home page.

Page updated June 19, 2010.