Community Suppers
2024 Community (Take-Out) Suppers ended March 21st. Thank you to all our volunteers!!
Weekly take-out dinners ONLY at St. Augustine Church hall from 5:00-5:30- pm. Please call the Monday before to record your request 508-684-6270. Our plan/goal was to have sit-down dining as well … i.e. community! Our other community events were well attended, Halloween and the Christmas Tea. As always, you can wear a mask if you want to, not required.
A Vineyard tradition during the darkest and coldest months of the year, January through March, churches from around the Island take turns providing community suppers at which all are always welcome, and the food is free. To help, please contact Mary Ellen Larsen at 508-693-1103 or email her at melarsen1103@gmail.com The full island schedule is listed below:
PLEASE NOTE: All persons aged 18 and older must complete the “Essential Three” as outlined in the Diocesan Policy for the Protection of the Faithful in order to minister, work or volunteer in the Diocese of Fall River. Find all the training info and requirements to be met on our website SET Training and Documents and printed copies are also available within the food pantry, or at the main entrances to all 3 island Churches. If helping one-time only, you can fill out the One-Day Form provided by the supervisor, and give a copy of your driver’s license/ID. Volunteers are CORI’d annually. High School students aged 18 or younger will read and sign the Youth Code of Conduct, along with a parent or guardian. Contact Sue Pagliccia, CORI coordinator 508-693-0342 during our regular office hours.
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On Thursday night, a group of parish volunteers served up dinner and friendship in the basement of St. Augustine’s Church in Vineyard Haven. — Photo by Nate Horwitz/MVTimes
FULL WEEKLY SCHEDULE:
Mondays 5:30pm St. Andrews Church 508-627-5300 34 North Summer St., Edgartown (Hosted by United Methodist Church MV & St. Andrews Episcopal Church)
Tuesdays 5:30pm Chilmark Community Church 508-645-3100 9 Menemsha Cross Road, Chilmark
Wednesdays 5:30pm WT Congregational Church 508-693-2842 State Road, West Tisbury
Thursdays 5:00pm Good Shepherd Parish 508-693-0342 56 Franklin Street, VH (Hosted by Good Shepherd Parish & MV Hebrew Center)
Fridays 5:00pm Grace Episcopal Church 508-693-0332 Supper held at the Baptist Church, William Street, Vineyard Haven
Saturdays 5:30pm Trinity Parish House 508-693-4424 In the Campgrounds in Oak Bluffs (Hosted by United Methodist Church MV)
Sundays 12:30pm Federated Church 508-627-4421 45 South Summer Street, Edgartown
Crop Walk
Fall 2023 the 33rd Annual Martha’s Vineyard CROP Hunger Walk-A-Thon, was Sun., Oct. 15, from St. A’s to the Lagoon Bridge (now only a 3-mile loop). In 2021, Woody Bowman, walk organizer presented Good Shepherd Parish with a Certificate of Honor recognizing our efforts throughout the years. A quarter of all funds raised on the Vineyard benefit the Island Food Pantry and the Vineyard Committee on Hunger, with the remaining 75% going to Church World Services, a multi-denominational Christian non-profit organization for use in the US and globally. Over the past 32 years, MV Crop Walk has raised $627,041, with 25% remaining on MV to benefit local efforts at the Island Food Pantry and the Vineyard Committee on Hunger.
What is a CROP Hunger Walk? Neighbors walking together to take a stand against hunger in our world. Together we raise awareness and funds for international relief and development, as well as local hunger-fighting.
Crop Walk Martha’s Vineyard takes place on a Sunday, in mid-October beginning at 2:00 pm from St. Augustine’s Church, 56 Franklin Street, Vineyard Haven over to the drawbridge and back in 2022 (other years to the Campground, OB), other routes are available per town. We encourage our parish families to participate in this annual event.
http://hunger.cwsglobal.org/site/TR/2014FallCROPHungerWalk/TR-Fall2014?fr_id=19802&pg=entry
Red Stocking Fund
The Red Stocking Fund distributes food vouchers for Thanksgiving and again in March, but its big push comes from the winter holidays. Its roots date back to 1938 when Mrs. Harris M. Crist asked her friends to fill six red stockings with gifts for needy children. Today, although the initiative has grown substantially, it is still a grass-roots effort manned by an all-volunteer army of close to 100 people, and supported by hundreds more.
Three annual off-season events benefit the Red Stocking fund -— the Martha’s Vineyard Big Chili Contest in January, the Chowder Contest held each year during Christmas in Edgartown weekend, and the MV Harley Riders Toys for Tots ride. The rest of the donations come from local businesses and individuals. “Kids collect change in the schools or host used-book sales,” says Ms. Susie Wallo, co-chair. “We always get some large checks, but a lot of it is $5, $10. People who come here in the summer or subscribe to the local papers send us checks. Their hearts go out to the cause. It’s just so incredible. People come out of the woodwork.” The money collected is used to purchase clothing and gifts and to supply Island families with holiday meals. In November, the Red Stocking Fund distributes applications through banks, schools and churches. Families in need are placed on a list to receive grocery gift certificates around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.
Parents of children up to the eighth grade can provide a list of their children’s most needed clothing and hoped-for toys. Everything is kept confidential. Volunteers work from numbered lists, with no names so that it’s anonymous. The toy donations all come from individuals and local businesses and organizations, including the Good Shepherd Parish. The Red Stocking accepts only new toys, games, or books. All kids get a book and some sort of art supplies. “Each package includes several major items of clothing,” says Ms. Wallo, “like a jacket or sweater, in addition to pajamas, socks, underwear, hats and mittens. The last two are generally handmade items donated by local knitters. Each kid also gets a book donated by the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore.” A few days before the distribution date, a crew arrives at St. Augustine’s Church Hall in Vineyard Haven to wrap and sort the gifts. Distribution is held the second Friday of December.
Every year the Red Stocking Fund provides Christmas gifts for over 300 children in need, from approximately 200 families.
Volunteers gather with the toys they collected for a previous year of the Red Stocking Fund. —Photo by Michael Dello Russo/MVTimes
For more information contact Susie Wallo at 508-776-6050. Checks in support of the Red Stocking Fund may be mailed to Susie Wallo, Treasurer, PO Box 600, Edgartown MA 02539.
St. Vincent de Paul Society (in hiatus, Feb. 2024)
“The question which is agitating the world today is a social one. It is a struggle between those who have nothing and those who have too much. It is a violent clash of opulence and poverty which is shaking the ground under our feet. Our duty as Christians is to throw ourselves between these two camps in order to accomplish by love, what justice alone cannot do.”
On September 7, we celebrate the feast day of Blessed Frederic Ozanam (1813-1853 ) quoted above, Founder of the Vincent de Paul Society. A scholar during his time, Frederic was inspired by the plight of the poor, seeing service to those in need as the duty of all good Christians. Not content to simply help the poor in their time of need, he sought to radically change the lives of the downtrodden. To help achieve his goal, Frederic founded the Vincent de Paul Society—an active organization today with over one million members in 32 countries.
We do not help to pay rent as we are not a rental subsidy. If you need emergency food assistance, contact Sarah with our food pantry sarah@goodshepherdmv.com.