St. James Episcopal Church

St. James Food Pantry opened twenty-six years ago. It is a designated distribution site of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank for the St. James neighborhood zip code area. Items received from the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank are supplemented by food and monetary donations so that a well-rounded menu of food items can be distributed. Volunteers meet on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 8:00 a.m. to bag and distribute food to recipients.

Hours of operation:

First and Third Wednesday of each month.

About the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank:

The mission of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank is to feed the hungry in Baton Rouge and surrounding parishes by providing food and educational outreach through faith-based and other community partners. http://www.brfoodbank.org/

We Care is a feeding ministry directed to those among and around us who do not have access to adequate housing or kitchen facilities. Lunch bags of ready-to-eat food are distributed from the Ministries Center each weekday morning, along with a note, picture, or Bible verse prepared by the Day School students. The bags supply a small part of the nutritional needs of many of our homeless and transitional neighbors. The supply list for the typical bag includes a protein item, crackers or nutrition bar, fruit cup, dessert cup and bottled water.

Hours of operation:

M-F, 9am - Noon

Parishioners from St. James Episcopal Church are involved in the Kairos Prison Ministry.

Kairos is a Christian, volunteer, lay-led, ecumenical, international prison ministry in 31 states and in 8 other countries. We are called by God to visit the prisons and share the love of Christ with those impacted by incarceration. Kairos offers inmates the opportunity to receive God’s forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ, and to grow in their faith and servanthood in a Christian community on the prison compound. http://kpmifoundation.org/index.php

Prisons we visit:

Louisiana State Penitentiary

The St. James Christmas Dinner is a mid-December event for our homeless neighbors with gifts, entertainment and a traditional Christmas meal. Parishioners donate materials and/or construct winter scarves for their gift bags, along with gloves and toiletries.

Hours of operation:

mid-December

Contact person:

Kelly Williams, Director of Lay Ministries

Our quarterly sit-down meals, where we graciously host our neighbors living on the streets or area homeless shelters.  Hearty Breakfasts at St. James are sponsored and managed by the St. James Center for Spiritual Formation. 

A Hearty Breakfast will be served in Bishops Hall from 8:00 until 9:00 a.m., with our parishioners and friends offering hospitality in the name of Christ to our neighbors in need. 

The Angel Tree Project has been supported by parishioners of St. James Episcopal Church for over twenty-five years. Nancy Penn heralds this project which provides gifts to children of indigent prisoners at Christmas. The receipt of a few presents, along with Biblical books or coloring projects, helps to remind these children who through no fault of their own may otherwise do without, that God's love will sustain them through difficult times.

Angel Tree is a project of Prison Fellowship. For decades, Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program has joined forces with friends like you to bring hope and joy back into the lives of prisoners’ children. Through the delivery of Christmas gifts and Christ-centered programs that continue all year long, inmates’ children are introduced to the love of Christ. http://www.prisonfellowship.org

Contact person:

Nancy Penn

Each summer the youth of St. James participates in mission and ministry trips to serve others, and learn more about their own faith. Past trips have included traveling to Appalachia and serving families in need through home repair and traveling to New York City and Chicago with a focus on urban poverty.