Last spring we were approached by a local organization, Bread and Beyond, to help them provide sandwiches to seven shelters on the island.  With the help of our parishioners and our community we have been providing from 350 to over 400 sandwiches/ week to this organization.

Bread and Beyond contacted us again in November to ask if we could collect winter attire for the men and women who live on the streets.  The results were amazing. We collected dozens of coats, boots, back packs, hats, gloves, etc. to give a little bit of comfort and warmth to those enduring our harsh winter outside.

We held two online bake sales; a harvest bake sale in October and country Christmas sale in December.

Due to the success of our sales and donations from our community, we were able to give generously to more than fourteen local families, including dozens of children. We supplied them with food gift cards, stockings filled with treats and small gifts and new boots. In addition, the ladies in our community made hats, gloves, scarves, and slippers for these families.

We sent gifts, hygienic bags, crocs, boots, knitted items, winter attire and stockings to the Women’s and Men’s shelters in our community. Recently we discovered that there is another homeless shelter located just down the street so we will help them in the future as well.

On Christmas day the Rodney family from St. Paul’s – plus many of their friends – made and delivered 46 Christmas dinners and goody bags to those in the area who were alone at Christmas.

We have been very busy with our frozen meal program.  We supply (for a small price to cover costs) meals by the week to those who are unable to cook for themselves.  A small group of ladies from St. Paul’s and the community faithfully make and freeze meals that are picked up or delivered weekly.  Since the start of the pandemic we have increased our clients threefold.

Because we would not be able to do all of this as a small parish we created a new organization, Community Outreach Group which includes St. Paul’s and all of the generous people of our community.

The Bible says that the Lord will provide and He has sure done that for so many through the help of so many. God is good…all the time.

We are so blessed here at St. Paul’s and are so grateful to our community for all they want to do to help those in need. It does indeed take a community.

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As the impact of Covid-19 starts to slow down, we are returniang to church at a slow pace. Yet since the start of the pandemic, we at St. Paul’s in Greenfield Park have not stopped working in the community. And although we were not able to gather in person to do what was needed, we found ways to continue our outreach; 

• keeping our ladies in the community busy at home by knitting articles for schools in our area, for our Christmas families, for men’s and women’s shelters and for the homeless 

• making frozen food for seniors and supplying approximately 400 sandwiches every Wednesday for Bread and Beyond, who in turn give them to seven shelters in Montreal, 

• continuing the breakfast program for our local school, 

• making blankets for cancer patients at the Charles Lemoyne hospital in Greenfield Park,

• collecting for our Christmas families as well as those in local shelters. 

We have been able to do all of this while not being able to meet in person but with a LOT of help from our community. 

In fact, the ladies and men of the Greenfield Park United church have all worked together to help with the sandwiches, knitting and blanket making. We have had strangers helping us make food for our frozen meals for the seniors, gather gifts for our Angel tree for our Christmas families, purchasing items for the homeless, offering to pick up and deliver food to the seniors, baking for our on line bake sale and much more.

It is amazing what a community can do when it comes together not just as a church but as people of God. The Lord wants us to gather in his name and to help those in need and that is what our community on the South Shore of Montreal is trying to do. 

Please take a moment, look around and see what you can do in God’s name. A pair of hands can do a bit but many hands can accomplish a lot.

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