Social Ministry Committee

The St. Boniface Social Ministry Committee enables parishioners to practice charity and work for justice, the two main parts of Catholic social teaching. Our ministry challenges every Christian to fulfill the essential obligations of the Gospel because we will be judged on how we have responded to the hungry, the sick, the stranger, the prisoner and the homeless.

Our ministry includes:

• Feeding the Hungry at Place of Hope
• Collecting food for the Cold Spring Food Shelf
• Raising funds for Habitat for Humanity through our Nickels for Nails donation "houses"
• Selling Fair Trade coffee and Chocolates
• Promoting Life through the 40 Days for Life Campaign and Mother's Day flower sales
• Educating parishioners about Catholic Social Teaching through speakers, events and study groups
• Weekly social ministry from the St. Cloud diocese

Feed The Hungry Place Of Hope

Our Social Ministry Committee, with the help of St Boniface youth and other members of the parish, enjoy preparing a meal for the homeless and hungry at Place of Hope in St Cloud.  We get a great deal of joy out of this mission.  It’s hard to recognize that we have many folks going hungry right in our area.  It is a wonderful experience to bring them a healthy hot meal.  They are so grateful it warms your heart. 

When we started this mission we were serving about 40 meals.  That number has continued to grow the last year or two.  On our most recent trips we served about 120 meals.  About a year ago we sold raffle tickets as a fund raiser to purchase the food for one meal per month until we ran out of money.  Due to the generosity of several members of our parish we haven’t run out of money yet.  We always seem to have enough money for the next month’s meal, and when we’re getting low, more donations appear.  We have been able to prepare at least one meal per month. 

Many other area churches are helping as well.  Our youth come out in numbers to help serve the meal.  Those eating at Place of Hope enjoy the youth and all their energy and the youth see how it is to depend on others for a meal.  If you would like to help, call Pat at 597-3993.

Collect Food for the Food Shelf

The Social Ministry Committee helps collect food for the Cold Spring Food Shelf by handing out grocery bags and lists of needed items on the third Sunday of the month and asking people to bring their donations the following weekend. If you would like to help hand out the grocery bags at one of the masses or deliver the donations to the food shelf, contact Sharon Skwira at sskwira@midco.net.

Habitat for Humanity "Nickels for Nail" Campaign

Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit ecumenical Christian organization builds homes for families who need a helping hand. The ROCORI construction class teaches students how to build homes through the hands-on experience of building a house. A partnership between Habitat for Humanity and ROCORI has resulted in Habitat for Humanity-- ROCORI Build. The St. Boniface Social Ministry Committee has chosen to be part of the partnership by helping raising funds for building the home with our Nickels for Nails Campaign

Donation “Houses” were made by Roger Bell and are in the Narthex and by the exit doors to allow parishioners to contribute their nickels and extra change for Habitat for Humanity. The committee has set a goal of raising $10,000 for Habit by this fall when the first house will be built. Contact Lynn Schurman at lynnschu@aol.com if you would like to be involved with our Habitat project.

Promoting Pro-Life Issues

Karen Rausch coordinates the parish 40 Days for Life project and other pro-life activities for the St. Boniface Social Ministry Committee. The committee has sold carnations on Mother's Day to raise funds for pro-life speakers and activities. To get involved with pro-life activities, contact Karen at Rausches6@aol.com.

Fair Trade Coffee and Chocolates

The Social Ministry Committee decided to sell Fair Trade coffee to develop awareness in the parish of the importance of the Fair trade Program to farmers around the world. Fair Trade is a program to ensure farmers in developing countries to have adequate income to support their families and help the communities. The program sees that the small growers get a fair price for their products, provides for healthy working conditions and allows them to develop long term relationships with the buyers. This eliminates the middlemen thus providing more funds for their products. Empowerment lifts the farmers from poverty through trade not aid.

At St. Boniface we have added chocolates to the products sold and will include tea next Fall, if there seems a demand for it.

Catholic Social Teaching gives guidance in how people of faith can transform the world through economic justice. Buying Fair trade products whenever we have a chance gives us an opportunity to start changing the world.

We want to thank all the parishioners that have taken this to heart.

Bulletin Announcements From Department of Social Concerns, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud, MN

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