It’s been awhile since we have communicated about Emmaus House. Unfortunately, we have not been operating Community Dinner for over a year, however, we are excited to announce that we will reopen our doors July 11th. Please allow us to refresh your recollection of the work we do and our plans going forward.
Historically, each Sunday night, with a few exceptions, right below us in Father Valker Hall we provide a community dinner and perishable food pantry for those who face difficulties with feeding themselves and their families. The dinners themselves are generously provided by various groups looking for outreach opportunities such as: St Francis ministries, parish groups, civic groups, businesses, area churches and school organizations.
We hand out dairy, meat, bread and produce to our guests in the harvest room following dinner. This bounty is designed to help our guests make it through the week more comfortably until our dinner the following week. The food is donated by our generous retail partners in the area, such as Costco, Jewel, Mariano’s, Trader Joe’s just to name a few. Our volunteers go out to each of these establishments each week to rescue this food that we provide in the harvest room.
In addition to Sunday dinner and food pantry Emmaus House also sponsors other important programs for our guests including: Jeepers Sneakers, which provides back to school shoes for children, Undie Sunday which distributes new underwear and socks for school age children and diaper and feminine hygiene product distribution.
As always, thank you to all who have volunteered or supported Emmaus House in any way by giving of your time, talents, resources and prayers. We could not do this without everyone’s help and we should be proud of this as parishioners in the Lord’s work.
With the support of the parish and our volunteers we have put together a plan to slowly and thoughtfully reopen Emmaus House. To begin with, we will simply host our food harvest distribution on Sundays with a twist. We used to open our doors at 5:30 on Sundays. With the opportunity to analyze our operation we have decided to move up our time schedule to 4:00 pm so as to not conflict with the 5:00 pm mass. We will reopen the doors of Valker Hall safely on July 11th at our new time of 4pm for food distribution only. At a later date, when it is safe to do so we will resume the community dinner portion of our ministry.
Each year, we asked for additional support for our mission and the Lord answered our prayers. This year is no different except perhaps our needs may be greater. It is important to note that we are an entirely volunteer-led ministry. We have no employees of any kind. All of our Board Members and volunteers carve out time from their other family and professional responsibilities to contribute to this ministry. For a variety of reasons, several of our volunteers have moved on.
We pray that this year we will again be blessed with the infusion of new volunteers. Perhaps you have always wanted to volunteer but could not and now new work arrangements or other circumstances will provide you that opportunity. The good news is we have a great program set up by our founders. It’s our job to continue what they have put in place. You can help as little as you want or as much as you want. The message is simply this. If you feel that you want to lend a hand, we will find a way for you to participate in our mission in a way that fits your schedule and desires.
If you would like to learn more about Emmaus House and how you could help, I invite you to go to our website through the parish website, or give us a call. We are listed in the bulletin each week and the parish e-newsletter.
Finally, we cannot say it enough, on behalf of the entire Emmaus House, “Thank you to the Parish for your support of our ministry”. We could not continue to function without your blessing for over two decades.
