Outreach
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Community Supper
St. Philip’s hosts a weekly community supper. The food is purchased with donations and grant money. The entire program is staffed with volunteer help from members of St. Philip’s and others who want to partner with St. Philip’s Community Supper.
Supper is served on Wednesdays from 5:15 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Community Supper will be served via curbside pickup. You may pick up your supper at Door 1.
Please check our Facebook page each Wednesday for the menu for that evening.
Click for:
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Disaster Relief
A few months after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, St. Philip’s Disaster Relief (SPDR) was formed and continues to help those impacted by natural disasters.
Teams of volunteers, with varied skills, travel to areas in need to help rebuild homes and lives. Rebuilding work has been done in Mississippi, Texas, New Jersey, and Florida following hurricanes; Minnesota, Iowa, Tennessee, North Dakota, Colorado, and Missouri following flooding; Colorado following wildfires; and Minnesota, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Kentucky following tornadoes. Depending on the distance, trips range from single day to weeklong trips. SPDR team members have traveled over 80,000 miles and spent over 37,000 hours helping those impacted by disasters near and far.
More about SPDR can be found here and on their Facebook page (Search for St. Philip’s Disaster Relief.)
Email the SPDR Coordinators at spdr@splcmn.org for information or to be added to the SPDR email list.
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Food & Clothing Shelf
Mission Statement:
To feed, clothe, and nurture our neighbors in need.As part of the ELCA World Hunger effort, St. Philip’s expanded the existing food pantry in 2017 into what is now the St. Philip’s Food & Clothing Shelf. Free emergency food, clothing, hygiene items, and crisis information are provided in a dignified, faith based, safe, friendly, and healthy environment where all are welcome.
St. Philip’s Food & Clothing Shelf has reopened its doors to inside service! We are now in our newly expanded space in Rooms 16 & 17, with entrance through Door 3.
Hours of operation:
- Tuesdays: 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.
- Wednesday: 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
- Friday: 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.
**The Food and Clothing Shelf will be closed Friday, November 29, 2024**
Visitors are welcome to receive two bags of food and one bag of clothing every 30 days per family/household.
Please email info@splcmn.org for more information.
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Garage Sale
In late August, the church is transformed into a large marketplace.
Treasures await you at St Philip’s Annual Garage Sale! Thousands of low-priced new or gently used items are available for purchase including books, clothing, craft items, home decor, housewares, jewelry, linens, office supplies, shoes, small electronics, sporting goods, toys, tools, and much more!
All items offered for sale are donated. Everything you donate makes this ministry a success! Proceeds of the sale are donated to various community organizations and to help maintain the church building.
2025 is the 28th Garage Sale!!
Sale dates:
- Wednesday, August 13
- 5:00 – 8:00 pm ($3/admission)
- Thursday & Friday, August 14 & 15
- 9:00 am – 7:00 pm
- Saturday, August 16
- 9:00 am – 12:00 pm – Everything 1/2 Price!
For more info on the sale, drop-off dates and times, and accepted items…please check back soon.
- Wednesday, August 13
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Garden
In 2011, St. Philip’s partnered with the Anoka County Community Health and Environmental Services Department to establish a vegetable garden on the church site. Grant money from the Otto Bremer Foundation was provided to begin and support the project for the first year.
Volunteers have continued to plant, maintain, and harvest produce from the garden each summer since 2012.
Produce is now given to St. Philip’s Food & Clothing Shelf.
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Global Health Ministries
Global Health Ministries (GHM) is an organization, based in Fridley, that partners with Lutheran efforts globally to bring medical equipment and supplies, offer leadership consultations, and many capacity building efforts to enhance and sustain the health and well-being of some of the most vulnerable people on earth. Long-standing partnerships have been developed in El Salvador, Liberia, Nigeria, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, India, and Bangladesh.
Volunteers from St. Philip’s help out in the warehouse twice a month by receiving and sorting donated medical supplies, preparing items for shipping, providing quality control for hands-on projects, and more.
For more information on GHM, visit their website.
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God’s Work. Our Hands.
“God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday is an opportunity to celebrate who we are as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) — one church, freed in Christ to serve and love our neighbor. We focus the fourth Sunday in September for, “God’s work. Our hands”. This Sunday is a day to gather and participate in service opportunities in our community.
Past activities include making sandwiches for the homeless, rolling bandages, tying fleece blankets, assembling birthday kits, serving ice cream sundaes at local care facilities, and many more. It is an opportunity for all ages to come together and use their hands to do God’s work.
God’s Work. Our Hands Sunday this year is on Sunday, September 22, 2024. Click here to learn more about “God’s work. Our hands.”
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Knitting & Crocheting
The St. Philip’s Knitters and Crocheters create hundreds of hats, mittens, teddy bears, baby sweaters, baby blankets, dish cloths, prayer shawls, slippers, afghans, and ear warmers.
These handcrafted items are shared with Anoka County Human Services, Bundles of Love, St. Philip’s Food & Clothing Shelf, local schools, and area nursing homes. Prayer shawls have been given to homeowners assisted by the St. Philip’s Disaster Relief team.
Most of these projects are completed using donated yarn. If you are looking for a home for any unused yarn, this group will be able to creatively put it to good use.
The group meets in Room 3 on the 4th Monday of each month. Click here for a building map to locate Room 3.
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Meals on Wheels
Meals on Wheels is a community-based service that provides fresh, nutritious meals delivered directly to the homes of seniors and individuals with disabilities throughout the Twin Cities. In addition to regularly providing healthy foods, caring volunteers provide social connection that helps meal recipients remain living independently in their own homes. For some recipients, these daily meals are the difference between living in their own homes and moving to a nursing home.
Meals on Wheels programs have existed in the Twin Cities for more than 40 years and could not exist without the help of volunteers who deliver the meals and donors who help those who cannot afford it pay for the meals. St. Philip’s provides drivers for a weeklong period three or four times a year. For more information on the Meals on Wheels program, visit their website.
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Mitten Making
Started in 2009 as a one-year project under the theme “Children in Need” a group sewed lined mittens from fleece fabric to give to Fridley Elementary Schools. This group is still going strong and has expanded beyond mittens. Fleece hats, headbands, and scarves have been added over the years.
Seven local schools, including the Fridley Early Childhood Program and the Area Learning Center, along with St. Philip’s Food & Clothing Shelf, Fridley Terrace, and several other places in the community are the recipients of these items.
The need in our community is great and increases each year. Keeping children and families warm is so important.
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Quilting
In existence for more than five decades at St. Philip’s, the Quilting ministry continues to provide handmade quilts to those in need.
In past years, many of the quilts were sent overseas through Lutheran World Relief. In recent years, the quilts have been donated to many local organizations.
Over 75 quilts per year have been sewn by the Quilters. Hours of labor and love go into each quilt.
The group meets in The Lounge on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month. Click here for a building map to locate The Lounge.
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“For there will never cease
to be poor in the land.
Therefore I command you,
‘You shall open wide
your hand to your brother,
to the needy and to the poor,
in your land.”Deuteronomy 15:11