Produce Gleaning with Society of St. Andrew:

 

 

 

St. Luker’s have been gleaning throughout these past years, which has helped to provide produce to our families who come weekly for food at St. Luke’s, during the pandemic.

The Society of St. Andrew brings people together to harvest vegetables and fruits which would otherwise go to waste to support communities. In this pandemic, this ministry has become a critical source of much needed fresh produce for people who are facing food insecurity.

For information for gleaning dates and to sign up, visit the Society of St. Andrew’s website at endhunger.org/volunteer. Click on “Florida” to see local shifts.

 

 

 

Citrus Harvest Gleaning: Once a year, St. Luke’s gleans unharvested fruit off of local trees and donates it to the Society of St. Andrews to help hungry families in Central Florida.

Date: TBA

The team will usually meet at 9:00 a.m. to receive information and directions.  Gleaning is usually done within a couple of hours. We provide picking tools, fruit bags, and water bottles. Make sure to wear a hat, gloves and sunscreen.

• Entry Level ministry opportunity
• Open to all ages
• No training required

 

If you have fruit trees in your yard or neighborhood that you can get permission to pick, please let us know by contacting serve@st.lukes.org.

St. Luke’s will help bridge the OCPS food chain supply gap by providing fresh produce and shelf stable products to our partner school, Maxey Elementary School.

 

 

 

Food distribution takes place monthly for the Maxey Elementary families who have signed up for the monthly distribution.

For more information and to learn about volunteer opportunities, please contact serve@st.lukes.org.

Meals on Wheels, during COVID-19

Volunteers are taking precautions to continue delivery of these critical meals.

Did you know that 1 in 6 seniors may not know where their next meal will come from?  Volunteers are needed to deliver meals to seniors in the west Orlando area. Join a team that rotates a weekly delivery – you can serve once every 8 weeks OR every week.

We can meet your schedule! Meals are picked up at 9:30 in the morning and are delivered to 7 to 10 at risk seniors. For more information or to attend an information session, contact serve@st.lukes.org.

Senior’s First Emergency Food Pantry Wish List

• canned veggies (corn, green beans, peas and carrots – NO extra large cans)
• low sodium soups
• small cans of beans
• stewed/diced tomatoes
• low sodium chili
• small jars of peanut butter
• tuna, chicken, turkey, spam
• pasta
• small alfredo or red spaghetti sauce
• carton of shelf stable milk (parmalat) or powdered milk
• small bag of rice
• instant potatoes (box of individual pouches)
• instant grits
• instant oatmeal
• fruit cups or low sugar cans of fruit
• applesauce
• raisins
• protein drinks (ensure)

For additional information call 407.615.8988 or drodriguez@seniorsfirstinc.org.

Deliver directly to: Senior’s First, 5395 LB McLeod Road, Orlando 32811

    

Click on the link below to read a recently featured article in
“Celebrate”, A Magazine by St. Luke’s United Methodist Church.

Meals on Wheels: Delivering Food and Friendships
(Volunteer Story, by Nan Slone)

Family Promise of Greater Orlando is one of our community partners who help to keep families together in the face of homelessness. During the COVID pandemic, Family Promise had families shelter in place at a hotel, and St. Luker’s shared their hospitality by providing the evening meal and food donations for the families. During certain weeks, these families are housed at the Family Promise Day Center, located in Winter Park.

When families are housed at the Day Center or at a local hotel, we have the opportunity to provide meals to these families at the Family Promise Day Center. There is also opportunity to host overnight at the Day Center. If you are interested in being an overnight host, please contact Peggy at pcaverly@st.lukes.org for more information.

If you would like to sign up to provide meals for the Family Promise families, you may currently sign up directly with Family Promise by clicking on the link below.

June Family Promise Registration 

 

 

For more information, contact serve@st.lukes.org.

(For more information about Family Promise organization, please visit their website at http://www.familypromiseorlando.org.)

Habitat for Humanity builds strength, security and self-reliance through homeownership. Join a team on the next St. Luke’s Build Day to help build and revitalize homes in East Winter Garden.

Date: Next Build Day: Saturday, July 1, 2023  

Time: 9:00 a.m. to approx. 2:00 p.m. (Depending upon work being done, end time may be earlier.)

 

 

No matter who we are or where we come from, we all deserve to have a decent life. We deserve to feel strength and stability day after day. We deserve to know we have the power to take care of ourselves and build our own futures. At West Orange Habitat for Humanity, this is what unites us. Through shelter, we empower. Our shared vision is a world where everyone has a decent place to live.  Our families work alongside volunteers to build their own homes and qualify by demonstrating a housing need (affordability, substandard conditions, overcrowding), their willingness to partner through sweat equity hours and attendance at financial education classes and their ability to repay a no- interest mortgage. Our ReStore also welcomes you to shop and donate and provides income to build homes and welcomes volunteers.

To learn more, please contact serve@st.lukes.org.

For information about West Orange Habitat for Humanity, visit westorangehabitat.org.

Educational IMPACT

Innovative Ministries with Parents, Administrators, Children and Teachers (IMPACT) at St. Luke’s is a Partner in Education with three Title One elementary schools.  A trained corps of volunteers serve as teachers’ assistants in classrooms, math and reading coaches, and as support for special events at Mollie Ray and Maxey Elementary Schools.  Shadow a St. Luke’s IMPACT volunteer for a morning or volunteer for a Special Event to see if this is a ministry that resonates with you!  Spend some time in the classroom and see how you can help at one of St. Luke’s three Partner schools.  There are a variety of ways to be involved in this ministry such as classroom aides, special events, Robotics team, Math Bee, Chess Club, Carnival, National Honor Society and 5^th Grade Party helpers, and more.:

• The commitment for math and reading is at least a semester and preferably the whole school year to provide consistency for the students.
• Classroom volunteer – A minimum commitment of 9 months (a school calendar) for an hour per week.
• Substitute classroom volunteer – Substitute regular classroom volunteers (when they can’t serve).
• Special Events Volunteer – at least 2 hours
• Need to register with OCPS as an ADDITIONS Volunteer before serving.

What’s it’s like to be an IMPACT volunteer

Here’s a message from one of our IMPACT volunteers.

Hi St. Lukers!

Joan Weninger here! My husband and I have been members of St. Luke’s for four years. I’ve been asked to tell you why I enjoy volunteering at Maxey Elementary.

From the time I walk down the hall and into a classroom I feel joyful and grateful to have the opportunity to serve. I can’t believe I’m doing the Lord’s work! But that’s the nature of God. Whatever you do in His name, the more He gives back and I sure feel it!

Children are always thrilled to have someone walk into their classroom who cares enough to spend the time to be a cheerleader for them. This past year and a half has put a cramp in my style but I’m looking forward to being part of the Maxey scene again this year, fully vaccinated, mask and all! So, who wants to give and receive some joy?

To learn more about being a part of the IMPACT program, please contact serve@st.lukes.org.

 

 

Mollie Ray Educational Impact Leader Needed

If you have a heart for school children and interest in leading a group of volunteers, we are in need of a lay leader for Mollie Ray Elementary School. The leader will work with the administration team to see how St. Luke’s can help the school meet their goals.

To learn more about this ministry, contact Saniye Kazan at skazan@st.lukes.org or 407.876.4991 ext. 297.

Inside Out Jail Ministries (ISO) is a faith-based, non-profit, re-entry ministry helping those incarcerated in the Orange County Jail succeed in returning to the community.

Most of those incarcerated have non-violent charges. They’ve experienced broken homes, abuse, homelessness, human trafficking, and/or have mental challenges. When they’re released, they go right back to what they know because they don’t know what else to do.

ISO facilitates classes to prepare them for re-entry, provide resources for help on the outside as well as transition management for those wanting to go to substance abuse treatment. Volunteers are needed as spiritual mentors, pen pals, and at worship services.

*   *   *   *   *

 

St. Luke’s has been a mission partner with the Inside Out Jail Ministry (ISO) for many years!

Salley Martin was honored to accept a certificate of appreciation on behalf of our church at a recent benefit dinner!

 

 

 

 

 

The United Methodist Women have also been strong supporters of the jail ministry.

Their representatives, Karen Brown and Rosemary Gates, were also presented with a certificate of appreciation for their generous donations. ISO prepares incarcerated men and women, upon their release, to successfully transition back into the community.

For more information or to volunteer, contact serve@st.lukes.org.

For more information about Inside Out Jail Ministries, go to www.isojm.org.

St. Luke’s partners with Jobs Partnership, a faith based organization that provides a 12-week, biblically-based, employability program for the chronically under-employed in West Orange County.

Coaches are needed to help adult students in the upcoming LifeWorks session. Classes are on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

Because of our involvement with East Winter Garden, please consider serving as a LifeWorks coach at The Dream Center, but there are several other locations to serve on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

To learn more and to volunteer as a coach at The Dream Center or at one of the other locations, please click on the link below to register.

To learn more about Jobs Partnership, to see the LifeWorks Training Schedule and for information about becoming a Jobs Partnership student, please click on the link below and click on :

For more information, visit jobspartnership.org or contact serve@st.lukes.org.

Go Full STEAM is a non-profit community effort that supports four programs to inspire under-resourced youth through science, technology, engineering, mathematics, visual and performing arts – all guided by a single umbrella organization.

We use a unified approach through specific areas of interest to open new worlds of opportunity for students. Our goal is to influence children’s lives by developing literacy, competency and a positive sense of self.

Go Full STEAM is comprised of 4 programs, Robotics Challenge, Arts After 5, Artworks and Math Bee.

Our 4 programs are different in their focused content, but they all share a common philosophy – to utilize science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) as pathways for social change – for individual students and beyond. The programs provide active, hands-on activities that are responsively facilitated to promote self-expression, critical thinking, self-reflection, a sense of belonging, curiosity, motivation and individual autonomy.

Visit Go Full STEAM for more information.

 Poverty Solutions Group

Poverty Solutions Group (PSG) is a Central Florida collaborative organization committed to sustainable poverty reduction. Based on emerging best practices, PSG empowers individuals and households to achieve economic stability and engages the broader community to address systemic barriers that perpetuate community-wide poverty.

Visit Poverty Solutions Group for more information. Also visit Poverty Solutions Group Facebook.

 

    Shepherd’s Hope

Shepherd’s Hope is a faith-based health care assistance ministry for the uninsured in Central Florida. Patients eligible for services have income at or below 200% of the poverty level, are uninsured and not eligible for government assisted health care programs. Doctors and nurses are needed as well as other volunteers who serve as eligibility specialists and hosts.  Shepherd’s Hope needs volunteers from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. once a week on either Monday or Wednesday.

For more information, please contact serve@st.lukes.org.

To learn more about Shepherd’s Hope, Click Here.