St. Mary Magdalene Parish Ministry Center 2022 Report

The Ministry Center, a small and mighty part of St. Mary Magdalene Parish, does a lot of heavy lifting to meet the needs of the community.  Here is a snapshot of the work of the Ministry Center for the calendar year 2022, by the numbers:

*Food distribution across our three sites (St. James, Holy Rosary, Eva Mitchell Tower)
Total individuals visiting the pantries:  3,752

*Total weight and cost of perishable and nonperishable food, paper products (paper towels, toilet paper, etc.), personal products (bath soap, laundry detergent, toothpaste/toothbrushes, masks, hand sanitizer) -Distributed: over 152 tons.

The food and paper products come to us from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.  This comes to us at a cost - in 2022, we paid fees of over $25,000 to the Food Bank which helps to cover their cost of operations. 
 
*Rent, utilities, and other emergency financial aid paid out: $118,362.00.    This is $12,000 more than twice the amount given in 2021, which totaled $53,100.  Through our work to secure grants from family foundations in the Pittsburgh area we were able to meet the overwhelming demand in 2022, providing over twice the help that we did in 2021.

*Mary’s Child: Parents and children served:  combined total of 1,273 - 306 parents and 967 children over the course of 2022.  Moms received clothing (shirts, pants, underwear, pajamas, socks, hats, gloves, winter coats, sweaters, shoes, boots, school uniforms), diapers, baby food, formula, baby furniture (cribs, pack-n-plays, highchairs, strollers, playpens, etc.), books, toys, and backpacks with school supplies.

*Clothing, household goods, appliances:  Our volunteers sort and organize  all donations of adult clothing, household items, bedding, small appliances, adult Depends, etc.  These are distributed through our own “free store”, monthly, in the St. James Chapel on the 3rd Saturday of the month, at the same time as the food distribution at the St. James Ministry site.

*Partnering with St. Vincent de Paul:  We partner with our parish SvDP Conference, supplying beds, furniture, and large appliances to those in need.  Additionally, our SvDP has helped with especially large requests for financial help.
                                                                          
*Angel Tree:  The parish gave support for 50 Mary’s Child Moms/Guardians to receive $25 Target gift cards to purchase gifts for their children. 

The Mary’s Child team of weekly volunteers, who are from outside our parish, asked their extended family and friends for cash donations which totaled enough to provide $25 gift cards for an additional 33 families.  These 3 women give of their time to our Mary’s Child program week in and week out and have done so for many years.  It truly takes a village, and we are grateful for their dedication and support.

The Ministry Center serves the needs of so many, each with their unique problems and challenges.  We have served families to get their heat turned back on; homeless persons who live outside year-round, the single parents who have children with special needs; those who are grieving the loss a child; the mom who has two jobs and needs help to feed her family, the family that was out of work due to Covid and had their water turned off because they couldn’t pay the bill; the gentleman who fell behind in his rent because of injury; the family that lost children in a house fire; the grandparents that are caring for their grandchildren when the parents are unable to do so.  

This is just a small snapshot of the people we have helped, so that they can maintain themselves and their families with the necessities of daily living.