The location of Saint Mary’s September 9th Soup Kitchen has changed due to a scheduling conflict. The event will be held from 5 to 7 pm at Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, on the corner of Ridge and Grove.

As always, we are looking for donated food, monetary donations and volunteers to prepare food, serve and clean up.

New this time: we need shoppers! I’d like to recruit a team of 2-3 shoppers who can shop for the event on Tuesday or Wednesday and then deliver it to one of our waiting refrigerators. We usually shop at Sam’s Club. I can give you a shopping list, a Sam’s card and money. I’ll even go along with you on your first training trip.

Also, we need groups like the Girl Scouts or a particular classroom to put together the bagged lunches as a service project. Now that we’re coming out of the summer, perhaps one or more of these groups would like to step forward - for this month or to lock in one of our other upcoming dates.

Even though we have had great volunteer support throughout the year, this one is right around the same time as a lot of other parish activities. We can really use your help!

Please e-mail Jay Larmee at jlarmee@larmeeassociates.com or 847-347-2895.

As you may know, we hosted the soup kitchen four times in 2009 and the support we received from all of you in 2009 has been tremendous. We had lots of volunteers at every soup kitchen. We’ve had very generous donations of food and money. So, we finish the year with great support and money in the bank. Based on this, we asked for twice as many dates in 2010 – and our wish was granted!

We have received a tentative schedule for 2010. We have eight dates in 2010. These should all be Thursday dates:

January 28th, 2010
February 25th, 2010
April 8th, 2010
July 8th, 2010
August 5th, 2010
September 9th, 2010 at Saint Mark's Episcopal Church
October 28th, 2010
December 9th, 2010

Place:
First United Methodist Church
Hinman Avenue and Church Street

We need your help from 5 to 7 pm. To volunteer or to donate food, supplies or donate money to buy food and supplies, contact Jay Larmee at 847-347-2895 or jlarmee@larmeeassociates.com.

This note went out to the Friends of the Soup Kitchen on Friday, August 6, 2010

Hi Everyone,

Thanks to everyone for their help with the Soup Kitchen last night, August 5th. Living up to our unofficial motto of “No one leaves hungry” we were able to feed around 65 of our hungry neighbors in the Evanston community.

Once again, I’m happy to report that we had plenty of food and plenty of cheerful volunteers to prepare and serve the meal. We never know exactly how many people we’ll be serving, so we tend to plan on the high side. As a result, we had lots of food. Enough for seconds. Enough for our guests to take “doggie bags” with them. All of that plus the bag lunches we always give people for the next day. So, when our guests show up, they’re really getting more than two meals out of the deal.

But, it not just the quantity. The food we serve is good. Really good. I’m talking home-made, church-social, comfort-type food here. All prepared by some of the best cooks in our parish. So, good that - I must confess - it’s hard to serve it without sneaking a bite every now and then.

We also give everyone a bag lunch for the next day. Yesterday, each lunch had a turkey sandwich, hard-boiled egg and a container of apple sauce.

So thanks to you all. Whether by donating money, donating food, preparing food or serving the food, it doesn’t happen without you!

Because we had so much food donated, our Frugal Shoppers only spent $264.87 on the dinner and bagged lunches. And, thanks to your generous monetary contributions, we continue to be in good shape financially. At this point, we have $1,570.10 parked in the Knights of Columbus bank account. This should keep us in good shape for the next few events.

The way the schedule works out, we’re signed up to host a soup kitchen about every month from July to September. The next Soup Kitchen is only five weeks away on September 9th.

Thanks again!
Jay Larmee - 847-347-2895 or jlarmee@larmeeassociates.com

As always we need help in the following areas:

• Monetary donations: This allows our frugal shoppers to buy the groceries we need. Typically, we buy the makings for the sloppy joes and cook these up ahead of time. We also purchase anything else that hasn't been donated.
• Food donations: We can always use salads, side dishes, gallons of milk, hard boiled eggs, fresh fruit and desserts. Some of your salads and side dishes have become legendary. You know who you are.
• Volunteers on the day of the Soup Kitchen: We always need folks to help prepare and serve the meal. With lots of people helping, it's pretty fun and easy and it's a good opportunity to catch up with other St. Mary's people.
• Bagged Lunches: We also pass out bagged lunches to the guests. We shoot for 100 bagged lunches. In the past, we sometimes have had a group put these together and deliver them to the FUMC that afternoon. For example, some of the Pope John kids took this on as a service project for a recent Soup Kitchen. If you know of any group that would like to do this, I can give them the details.

Feel free to call with questions or concerns!
Parish Office
847-864-0333
fax: 847-864-0354
stmary1012@stmaryparish-evanston.org