Holy Trinity Episcopal Church
Outreach Ministry
Operation Backpack: The backpack ministry to a local elementary school provides 21 backpacks filled with shelf stable meals for the weekends (7 meals per backpack). Parishioners donate food such as single serve oatmeal packets, applesauce cups, fruit cups, raisins, packs of peanuts, crackers, ramen noodles, instant chicken noodle soup, canned tuna, canned chicken, juice boxes, and milk. We also have an Outreach budget that provides some funds for use in purchasing any additional items we need.
The bags are packed by parishioners between the 8:00 and 10:00 services. All are welcome to join in the effort! Also, each week there is a rotation of folks who deliver the bags to the school.
School Supplies: We collect school supplies during July and August for the same elementary school each year. We donate supplies such as crayons, pencils, notebooks, folders, glue, and markers. The items are then delivered to the school the week before school starts.
Thanksgiving: We provide gift cards for a local store to the families of the students at the elementary school as part of our Thanksgiving Outreach program. This enables the families to purchase items needed around the Thanksgiving holiday.
Christmas Gift Cards: If we have funds available in our annual Outreach budget in December, we purchase Walmart or Target gift cards for the elementary school families to use at Christmas.
International Seafarers’ Ministry: We support the Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center that provides services at the Port of Baltimore. This Episcopal ministry provides support to the international seafarers year-round and especially at Christmas. We pack gift bags for the seafarers that include toiletries, warm hats and gloves, New Testament Bibles, and notepads. The Center distributes them during November and December as ships arrive.
Angel Tree for Pets: In November and December, we put up a Christmas tree decorated with paper angels. Each angel lists an item that is needed at a local animal shelter. Parishioners choose an angel, shop for that item, and return the item to Holy Trinity. Then we deliver the donated items to the shelter.
Eastern Interfaith Outreach (EIO): EIO is a local food pantry that is supported by various churches in the Essex/Middle River area. We support this ministry by collecting canned goods to donate to the pantry. Holy Trinity also has a designated financial amount in our monthly budget to donate for the pantry to purchase items that are still needed.
Vegetable Garden: We grow vegetables during the summer months and donate the produce to another local food pantry for distribution to those individuals in need. We have parishioners who tend the garden and harvest the produce as it is ready. Then a representative from the food pantry picks up the vegetables.
Ronald MacDonald House Baltimore (RMH): We collect aluminum pull tabs from any aluminum can products and deliver them to the local RMH once or twice per year. The tabs are then recycled with the profit used to fuel the shuttle bus that takes family members of the children to the hospital.