St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church at 1131 SE Oak, Portland, OR 97214 US - St. Vincent's

St. Francis' St. Vincent de Paul Society provides food, transportation and vouchers for lodging to those who need help in the parish and Buckman neighborhood. St. Vincent's distributes over 35 baskets at Thanksgiving time, providing a turkey meal with much additional food for singles, couples and families. The parishioners provide the food and packages it. The Sunday before Thanksgiving, they distribute the food boxes. The Society also provides small, useful gifts for the dining hall guests at Christmas. Throughout the rest of the year, the St. Vincent de Paul Society distributes food boxes to those who need help, many times families with children. 

January, 2008

A Letter to the St. Francis Community from Your St. Vincent de Paul Conference

We wanted to thank you again for your ongoing support and update you on some of the projects we have been able to do in 2007.   We still deliver food 3 days a week thanks to a small group of dedicated volunteers.   We are part of the Oregon Food Bank which has helped us enormously.  As the government support and local donations drop, however, we are purchasing more food items from OFB rather than just receiving them for free.  Your food barrel donations on Sunday are even more important.  We have also worked this year to have a package of cleaning supplies (detergent, dish soap, cleaning liquid, paper towels, etc.) to give to each food call recipient.  These items have really been appreciated as they are not covered by food stamps.  We were able to help 346 people this year with food deliveries.

Our food calls and deliveries have tapered off somewhat as the neighborhood changes.  We now have more requests for rent and utility assistance.  Of the $6,670 we spent this year, over $3,800 was to assist people to maintain housing and utilities.

Our support of the Dining Hall has changed, also.  We were able to supply 86 sleeping bags this year which were distributed by the Dining Hall staff.  We also supplied the Dining Hall with 144  8 x 10 tarps to help them and their belongings stay dry.  These are items we feel very good about being able to supply.  We have been able to find bargain prices which allow us to purchase them.

We continue with the Christmas “stocking” tradition.  We prepare 200 men and 50 women and children bags of gloves, wool socks, tooth brush, tooth paste, and snack treats for them in a sealed plastic gallon bag.  We are also able to offer scarves to them, thanks to our generous knitters.

We appreciate your generous financial support through cash donations, donations and purchases at our Christmas Sale and especially the support of everyone in bringing food baskets, turkey money and delivery help to our clients at Thanksgiving time.  We were able to assist 36 families with excellent dinner ingredients.  We also need to especially acknowledge the support we receive from the Joe Weston Foundation.  Our grant was $2,000 last year which is very important to our work.  The grant for 2008 is $2,500 which will support our efforts even more. 

Our mission is our neighborhood and to our parish family so if you have or are aware of needs please contact Ann Bowling at the parish.  

New members as well as suggestions or questions are always welcome.  We are especially in need of volunteers to deliver food once a month.   Please contact any of our St. Francis Conference members:  Ann Bowling, Betty Skach, John & Sandy O’Rourke, Bob & Lynda Ciri, Joan & Bill Sifferle, Charlene Diss, Leanne Kerner, or Pat Morgan.

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