Outreach

Current News and Calls to Action

2024 St. David’s Cares Outreach Grants

Recipients Announced

This February, St. David’s Episcopal Church awarded $135,769 in grants to eight local organizations and three international Episcopal partners through its St. David’s Cares Grant program. These grants go to organizations within the Greater Philadelphia region or known international partners and are funded in part by the proceeds from the St. David’s Annual Church Fair and proceeds from the Gift Shop & Art Gallery at St. David’s.

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Creation Care

Ongoing: Collection of Recyclable Plastic Film Materials

We are collecting recyclable plastic film materials: Amazon bubble wrap bags, plastic grocery bags, bread bags, produce bags, cereal bags, dry cleaning bags, bubble wrap, ziplock, and salt bags. Provide them clean, yes, but no need to peel off paper labels. We are NOT collecting: plastic containers, bottles, utensils, Tupperware, polystyrene, or Styrofoam.
Help us collect and bring in plastic wrap—the stuff that usually ends in landfills, incinerators, or our waterways, polluting our environment and injuring our health—as we collect for TREX, a company that genuinely recycles the plastic into handsome outdoor furniture and long-lasting outdoor decks. If we collect enough, TREX donates a handsome bench as a thank you! This project is undertaken in collaboration with Main Line Unitarian Church and Christ Church, Villanova.

Ongoing Opportunities with our Outreach Partners

Family Promise of the Main Line (FPML)

Cindy McCallum

Family Promise (formerly IHN) is a partnership of congregations within a community helping families who are facing homelessness. This organization mobilizes community resources and helps families regain their housing, their independence and their dignity. On several occasions throughout the year, St. David’s hosts families for a week at a time where we provide dinner, compassionate companionship, and safe, secure overnight accommodations.

There are 6 volunteer opportunities each week: dinner preparation, evening host, overnight host, set-up, clean-up, and laundry. We need to fill 53 volunteer spots for each host week. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, please sign up for a training session using the volunteer link below, or contact Cindy McCallum.

If you have already had training, please remember the Evening Hosts and Overnight Hosts must have the required security clearances.

Clearances must be on file at St. David’s Church (contact Roe DeRitis with questions at clearances@stdavidschurch.org).

Please click here to sign up for a training session.

Please click here to sign up for our next host week.
Remember the SignUpGenius uses a tab format. Click on the link at the top of the screen for the job you are interested in volunteering for (dinner preparation, evening host, overnight host, set-up/clean-up, and laundry).

Thank you for continuing to support FPML; this is a much-needed organization in our community and does such great work supporting homeless families.

Episcopal Community Services

Rick Herman

Episcopal Community Services challenges systemic poverty across the Diocese of Pennsylvania by reducing barriers to opportunities and empowering independence, wellness, and stability. St. David’s supports ECS through outreach donations, individual service on the Board of ECS, and in programs sponsored by ECS.

LeBus Bread Ministry

Stacey Rohrbeck

Volunteer Drivers Needed: Tuesdays and\or Wednesdays | 4-5 p.m.

Do you like the smell of bread? Even if you don’t, we could still use your help. A handful of parishioners from St. David’s visit LeBus in King of Prussia at closing to pack up all the unsold bread and deliver it to shelters and organizations supporting those in need. We are looking for more people to join in on the fun. If you have any interest in being part of the team, please contact Stacey Rohrbeck for details at staceyrohrbeck (at) gmail.com.

Project Ensonga Sewing Ministry

Leslie Roy

Ugandan girls without sanitary supplies often stay home from school during their periods, missing up to two months of education and opportunity each year. Project Ensonga makes and distributes sustainable feminine hygiene kits for students in Uganda. Designed by Days for Girls International, the kits are washable and last up to three years. After kits were distributed in other Ugandan schools, absentee rates dropped from 36% to 8%. A few times per month, the Project Ensonga ministry gets together to help sew and assemble these kits.

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Red Cross Blood Drives

Throughout the year, St. David’s hosts the Red Cross in holding a blood drive at our Church. The Red Cross is accepting both blood donations and Power Red donations every hour. Power Red donation collects the red cells but returns most of the plasma and platelets to the donor.

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Ended: Ronald McDonald House

NO LONGER COLLECTING: Aluminum Can Tabs for Ronald McDonald House

St. David’s is NO LONGER a collection point for can tabs for Ronald McDonald House. If you would like to continue to contribute tabs, you may find information on how and where to give them at https://www.rmhcphilly.org/ways-to-give/ under “Kids”.

Safe Harbor

Kate Myers and Katy Vangergrift

Located in downtown West Chester, Safe Harbor is a homeless shelter for men and women in crisis. Safe Harbor’s mission encompasses food, shelter, and individualized action plans to help people rebuild life skills, reestablish self-esteem and overcome issues that prevent them from leading independent productive lives.

St. David’s has partnered with Safe Harbor to prepare and deliver 30 bagged lunches to shelter residents and other needy community members once a month. We also provide a prepared dinner for shelter residents monthly. Everything is delivered to Safe Harbor on the first Friday of each month. Volunteers may sign up to help on a SignUp Genius, sent out about a week and half beforehand to give volunteers time to prepare and/or purchase food. Volunteers can drop off donations at the church (we have a labeled shelf in the refrigerator for perishables and the back pantry for everything else).

St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church

Leslie Lewis

St. Gabriel’s is an Episcopal parish in Philadelphia that we partner with on their many outreach ministries. Specifically, there is a feeding program on Saturdays that provides food, clothing, and other supplies for the local community. Please contact Leslie Lewis if you are interested in serving.

Each year during the holidays, the St. David’s community collects items to be brought to St. Gabriel’s. The church than distributes these much-needed items to the homeless in the city. Items collected include Blessing Bags during Thanksgiving, and mittens, gloves, hats, and scarves during Christmas time.

St. James School

The Rev. W. Frank Allen (Board Chair) gives the 2022 Co-Founders Cup to Dominic with Dave Kasievich, Head of School, at right

Sarah Schoettle

St. David’s has been involved in supporting St. James School since 2010 in various ways. We have provided seed money for two classroom projects, used our Hammer & Nails Men’s Fellowship for renovations and remodeling projects, supported many Day-of-Service projects, and involved numerous parishioners in vital ministries including one-on-one tutoring, library and literacy support, mentoring, administrative support, and more!

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St. John’s Cecil & Grace Bean Soup Kitchen, Norristown

Alison Hastings

St. David’s is one of several churches that provide meals and volunteers for the Cecil and Grace Bean Soup Kitchen that operates out of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Norristown. Six to ten parishioners and/or staff make their way to St. John’s on the first, fourth, and fifth Wednesdays of each month, with casseroles and soups made by St. David’s parishioners, to feed between 80 and 150 of our hungry brothers and sisters. Check out the recipes found at the link below. St. David’s Youth also serve breakfast on the first Sunday of each month.

Hot Chicken Pasta Casserole

Beef Vegetable Soup

St. Mary's Food Cupboard, Chester

Ned Miller

Our parishoners provide canned goods and other non-perishables to the food pantry, including: canned tuna, pasta and spaghetti sauce, soups, and peanut butter and jelly. We also can accept toiletries and baby diapers and wipes.

You may also serve at St. Mary’s any Thursday from noon to 2 p.m. For more information contact The Reverend Thomas Szczerba.

Women's Fellowship Feeding Ministry

Tracey Smith

The Women’s Fellowship meets in the kitchen on the Second Monday of the month from 10am-12pm to prepare meals for the St. David’s feeding ministries. No cooking (or other!) skills required, just a desire to join in fellowship and contribute meals for our local partners. All of the ingredients will be provided. Please also bring a non-perishable food item for our ongoing food collection!

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The Gift Shop & Art Gallery at St. David's

Located on the church’s main floor adjacent to the reception desk, The Gift Shop features gifts crafted by artisans from all over the world as well as fashionable vendors. There are also greeting cards, books, Bibles and a variety of religious items to support your spiritual life. The Art Gallery features paintings, photography, and pottery art by local artists, also for sale. Not only is the shop & gallery a wonderful resource for all of your gift-buying needs, it is a significant resource for funding the church’s international outreach programs in Cuba, Guatemala, and Uganda.

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International Ministries

St. David’s is blessed to have three international ministries: Cuba, Guatemala, and Uganda. Between these locations, St. David’s parishioners have built homes, schools, hospitals, and churches that have touched thousands of lives, as well as provided scholarships for children to attend school.

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St. David's Cares Grants

St. David’s Outreach Commission assists programs seeking to make God’s love known to all of God’s children through our St. David’s Cares Grant Program. We specifically seek to help organizations that involve St. David’s parishioners in hands-on ministries.

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2024 Outreach Month

Sunday Morning Adult Forums
10:30 a.m.
in Allen Hall and recorded and uploaded on YouTube

Sunday, January 7, 2024: International Outreach Partners of St. David’s – Carol Kangas (Guatemala), Leslie Roy (Uganda), Lois Redmond (Cuba)
Sunday, January 14, 2024: Project Ensonga – Leslie Roy
Sunday, January 21, 2024: Episcopal Community Services – Chaplain, Kyle Evans and CEO, Anne Rice-Burgess
Sunday, January 28, 2024: Alianzas de Phoenixville – Nina M. Guzman, founder of Alianzas de Phoenixville
Sunday, February 4, 2024: Thistle Hills – Tiffany Starkes, program/house director of Thistle Hills – Download brochure

Past Forum Appearances

Past Collections

Thanksgiving Blessing Bags

Thanks to your support, we delivered 150 Thanksgiving bags with food and gift cards for our outreach partners at St. Gabriel’s and St. Mary’s! Please reach out to The Rev. Thomas Szczerba, Jr. with any questions.