St. Paul's Episcopal Church

About ten years ago, St. Paul's Dowagiac discerned that one of our gifts as a congregation is hospitality. We decided to launch a monthly meal for anyone in the community who wished to attend. We advertised in the paper, in doctor's offices, in the library, and so on. Our first month we had about 35 to 40 guests. Since then we have steadily grown and have served up to 150 people. After 8 months or so, we decided to add a food pantry. We started in one small room, a former nursery, and bought shelves. We are associated with the West Michigan Food Bank and buy most of our food through them. The pantry is open the same hours as our community lunch, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the last Saturday of the month. We serve from 80 to 150 families every month. Other community members began to notice the food pantry and offered to help. A local restaurant, the Woodfire Trattoria, now furnishes an entree and a salad 10 or 11 months of the year. The Roman Catholic church in town, Holy Maternity of Mary, sends volunteers to work at the meal and the pantry, and their women bake marvelous desserts each month to serve at our community meal. Several organizations in town hold food drives at various times during the year and donate the food to us and to other food pantries in town. As our congregation has become smaller over the last ten years, our partners in ministry have enriched our experience and made it possible for us to continue to serve our guests. It was a bonus we never expected at the start.

We have other ministries as well. For over 40 years we have provided space for 12-step groups to meet, the only church in our community which does so. We now have nine active groups meeting six days of the week.