The Service Formation Cluster supports the parish outreach
efforts involving the congregation and the neighborhood community.
The Nursing Home Ministries, Social Care Office, and the Food Pantry
are ministries grouped together as our Service Formation Cluster.
Nursing Home and Hospital Ministries
The Communion Ministers - also known as Ministers of Care
- visit area hospitals and nursing homes on a regular basis
to to bring Communion and expressions of our ongoing concern
to the sick and shut-ins.
Social Care Office
St. James Social Care, rooted in the mission of Jesus at St.
James Catholic Church, reaches out with specialized programs
to meet the spiritual, social, and physical needs of those
who live in the immediate area. Through these programs we
provide compassionate support and empowerment to improve the
quality of life of those we serve. The Social Care Office
annually ministers to the needs of more than 300 senior citizens.
Through crisis intervention, telephone reassuances, friendlly
visits, Bible study and Communion visits to the homebound,
the Social Care Office continues to be a vital component of
the ongoing ministries of St. James.
Food Pantry
St. James Food Pantry has been in existence since 1970 when
a teacher in the parish school formed a food distribution
program as a means of assisting needy school families. From
that small but effective start, the Food Pantry has emerged
as one that extends compassionate support to its neighbors
by way of monthly food assistance, serving over 1,400 children
and adults in a 30-day time period. Many clients are African Americans who live in near-by public
housing and Asian Americans from the nearby Chinatown neighborhood. Many are single parents on welfare who need help
supplying food for their children. Our clients also include
about 300 senior citizens that are on fixed income and live
in a senior housing in this neighborhood.
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