Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. – Matthew 25:40

St. David’s offers ongoing opportunities for parishioners to serve our community.

Hampden Family Center

This community organization offers education and social services to individuals and families in an economically mixed neighborhood just south of Roland Park.

• Backpacks with school supplies: The parish fills backpacks with school supplies that are distributed to elementary school students as they begin the school year.
• Easter and Thanksgiving dinner Purple Bags: Parish families use a shopping list to fill a Purple Bag with nonperishable food for another family’s holiday dinner. Along with the Purple Bags, families receive a gift card to purchase a turkey or ham as a centerpiece for their meal.
• Christmas Angels:  Each year in early December, parishioners are invited to take the name of one or more children and fulfill their Christmas “wishlist.” Gifts are wrapped and returned to the church, blessed, and delivered to the Hampden Family Center for distribution just before Christmas, usually benefiting between 60-80 neighborhood families.

Hampden Food Pantry

The Hampden Food Pantry operates the first four Wednesday mornings of each month at the Hampden United Methodist Church.

• Yellow Bags: A supply of reusable Yellow Bags is available near the tables at the entrance doors to the church. Parishioners are invited to take one or more bags and return them each month with foods purchased at their favorite grocery store using the guidelines for healthy foods. Yellow Bags are delivered weekly to the food pantry.

Paul’s Place

Paul’s Place began as a soup kitchen in the basement of a Southwest Baltimore church nearly 40 years ago. It has expanded into a community outreach center in the Washington Village/Pigtown neighborhood of downtown Baltimore that serves more than 75,000 hot lunches a year and offers more than 20 programs. St. David’s parishioners assist by cooking meals and serving them at the Paul’s Place soup kitchen.

• Cooking for Paul’s Place: About once a month a rotating group of parishioners gather in the kitchen of the church to prepare a casserole meal that will serve between 300-350 lunchtime visitors.
• Serving at Paul’s Place: On several announced dates each month, volunteers from St. David’s spend about three hours volunteering at Paul’s Place. Upon arrival, assignments are given to help with serving food, dispensing water, cleaning tables, or helping in the Marketplace—the onsight “store” where daily visitors can get clothing, linens, and even some small appliances. 

Baltimore International Seafarer Center

Partnering with the Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center, each year St. David’s provides special supplies to the seafarers visiting the Port of Baltimore. In December, parishioners assemble special shoe box gifts for the mariners, filled with warm socks, knit caps, pencils & pads of paper, a deck of playing cards, a pocket-sized New Testament, and other simple gifts that help them know that we are thinking about them.

Red Cross Blood Drives

Each Fall and Spring, the Outreach Committee sponsors a blood drive in partnership with the American Red Cross that typically collects 30-40 pints at each drive.

Church of the Guardian Angel Food Pantry

St. David’s assists the Church of the Guardian Angel, Remington, which operates a food pantry on Wednesday mornings. The pantry needs help on two days: 

• Tuesdays: Help organize food in the pantry
• Wednesdays:  Distribute food and make deliveries by car

ERICA  (Episcopal Refugee and Immigrant Center Alliance)

St. David’s supports the work of ERICA, which helps refugees, asylum-seekers and other newcomers in Greater Baltimore rebuild their lives through one-on-one problem solving, emergency assistance, and educational workshops.