Second Harvest Heartland: Feeding Our Neighbors

St. Mary’s partners with Second Harvest Heartland to provide nutritional food and fresh produce to thousands of children, families and seniors throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Every dollar donated to this program provides enough food for three meals, and 94% of every donation goes directly to serving those who are hungry. So far, St. Mary’s has helped provide over 75,000 meals to our hungry neighbors.

All people deserve to eat, regardless of the choices they’ve made or the hands they were dealt in life. No one can grow, maintain good health or reach their full potential if they are hungry. A surprising number of our neighbors are doing something they never imagined – visiting a food shelf for the first time in their lives. Studies show 1 in 10 of our neighbors goes to bed hungry each day. Hunger impacts working families, children, seniors, and even college students. Food insecurity is a growing problem. St. Mary’s is committed to helping relieve hunger in our communities.

Learn more about hunger in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Avancez: Haiti Children’s Scholarship Program

St. Mary’s is actively engaged in an ongoing Mission Partnership with the Society of St. Margaret, an Episcopal Religious Order, to help sustain a scholarship program for children and young people in Haiti who otherwise would be forced to drop out of school for lack of ability to pay even minimal fees. Haitian children are not provided with free, public education as we are in the United States. These scholarships support any child in any school that is in danger of having to drop out because they cannot pay the modest fees required to continue their education.

Recent earthquakes, hurricanes and political instability have made this Scholarship Program a major pastoral and outreach mission. Education is a precious privilege – the door to the future for Haiti and Haiti’s children. The cost of tuition from pre-school to the end of secondary school varies from $250 to $1000 US dollars per child per year. St. Mary’s Church has donated over $10,000 to help transform the lives of Haitian children and bring them the gift of hope.

Learn more about our mission partner in Haiti.

First Nations Kitchen

First Nations Kitchen is a ministry of All Saints’ Episcopal Indian Mission in Minneapolis and has been serving healthy, organic, traditional indigenous food in a welcoming, family environment every Sunday evening since 2008.

In the First Nations Kitchen model, volunteers prepare different entrées each week.  Guests choose which entrée they would like.  Those volunteers who prepare and serve the meal are welcome to eat with the guests.  In this way, participation becomes interaction and relationships can begin to develop. 

Learn more about First Nations Kitchen

More Ministry Links

The Episcopal Church

The Episcopal Church welcomes all who worship Jesus Christ and comprises 108 dioceses and three mission areas in 22 countries or territories. As the only U.S.-based member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, The Episcopal Church is part of the world’s third-largest group of Christians and currently has more than 1.5 million members. The mission of the church, as stated in the Book of Common Prayer’s catechism, is “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” In step with that mission, The Episcopal Church follows Jesus into loving, liberating, and life-giving relationships with God, with each other, and with the earth.  

Episcopal Church in Minnesota

The Episcopal Church in Minnesota is one faith community in 104 places, bound together by our commitment to follow the Way of Jesus, joining God in God’s project to heal the whole world with love. Our congregations are rural and urban, young and old, large and small. We speak Ojibwe, English, Dakota, Spanish, Karen, and Hmong. We worship and work together on the ancestral and contemporary lands of the Anishinaabe and Dakota peoples. You can learn more here about our history and the role Indigenous people have played in ECMN since its founding.

Episcopal Relief & Development

Episcopal Relief & Development works worldwide to alleviate hunger, create economic opportunities, respond to disasters, promote health and strengthen communities. ERD works with our partners to create lasting change in communities struggling with hunger, poverty, disaster and disease. We are committed to listening, learning, and working together to build upon local knowledge that already exists in our programs for women, children and climate. We are a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All gifts are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Anamchara Fellowship

Founded in the tradition of the Episcopal Church, with a Celtic spirit,  Anamchara Fellowship has received canonical recognition by the House of Bishops’ Committee on the Religious Life. We are an inclusive community, welcoming all people: clergy and lay, married, single, or partners in a committed relationship. Members of the Fellowship may live in their own homes or in groups as the ability for that arises. Each member must be self-supporting, and we are bound to each other by common ideals and a commitment to prayer and service. Our primary ministries focus on retreats and quiet days, pastoral care, intercessory prayer and spiritual direction.