Thank you for your continued support of the summer food drive for the UMD food pantry!
We will be collecting food through the end of August. To date we have collected 800-900 pounds of food!
Food Pantry
Your donations have helped stock the UMD food pantry, which offers free groceries to families. Every Tuesday morning in our parking lot, about 120 bags of groceries from the UMD food pantry are distributed to families who are food insecure. In addition to your donations, the UMD outreach committee provides additional items that are most needed. It varies from month to month from breakfast foods to canned meats and vegetables. There will never be a surplus on the pantry shelves, as the demand never diminishes.
Community Cafe
In addition to the food pantry, UMD provides three meals a day, 365 days a year to anyone who comes to the door – an unbelievable undertaking. St. Philippians support this work in several ways. On the first Saturday of every month, a team of our volunteers help prepare and serve lunch at the community cafe. Lunch boxes are distributed from the doorway as there continues to be no indoor dining at the community cafe because of COVID. In the recents weeks however, because of the heat, some limited indoor seating has been made available.
This past Saturday evening was a special treat for our committee and our neighbors. Under the planning and direction of Miss Doris (a force to behold in the UMD kitchen), we offered a soul food dinner to about 140 men and women. Word of ribs, mac and cheese, beans, cabbage, corn bread, lemonade and peach cobbler being served spread quickly, and a line curved around the corner for this bountiful and delicious meal. We hope to sponsor another dinner again this fall.
Sandwich Brigade
The Sandwich Brigade makes sandwiches that are handed out in UMD’s boxed lunches. Brigadiers help either by making sandwiches at home or by making sandwiches at the UMD kitchen on the fourth Tuesday of the month. Homemade sandwiches are collected every Wednesday, along with donated fruit, cookies, snacks and water for UMD lunches. This past week (a typical one) we collected over 400 homemade sandwiches! The Brigade began in March 2020 during the darkest days of the pandemic, and we have not stopped. We are always looking for new Brigadiers to join the effort.
If you are interested in helping at the food pantry, serving in the kitchen, or being a part of the Sandwich Brigade, please contact Stephanie Johnson, and she will connect you to the coordinator of each ministry.