Pleasant Valley Ecumenical Food Pantry We continue to support the only local food pantry with time, talent & treasure! St. Paul's joins with the PV United Methodist Church, St. Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church, and the First Presbyterian Church to provide food, household necessities and personal hygiene items to approximately 100 households each month.
The Pleasant Valley Ecumenical Food Pantry is currently open every Wednesday from 6-7:30 p.m. Guests are welcome from anywhere in the Arlington school district...no proof of income required. Volunteers are welcome any time and so are donations of $ or nonperishable food! Contact Liz Whitman at 845-464-3903 for more information. On behalf of our guests and the entire Food Pantry committee, thank you all so much for your generosity & kindness!
Episcopal Seniors (On Hiatus for the first half of 2024) Episcopal Seniors is a program for 50+ addressing Well Being: physical, mental, spiritual, financial! This program was organized by one of our wardens, Rita Carver and David McNary of St. Margaret's, Staatsburg, NY and funded through an Episcopal Church grant. Please visit the website here: http://www.episcopalseniors.org/
Our Thrift Shop is in transition - and is currently closed to the public. The thrift shop has served both our neighbors in need, and ourselves as a vital fellowship for nearly forty years. We are grateful for this ministry to have benefited so many individuals for so long. Following COVID many of our donations decreased, patronage decreased, and volunteer numbers declined. We are currently in transition, exploring new management arrangements and are closed for the time being.
Rural and Migrant Ministry We collect school supplies annually to be distributed to campers for RMM’s summer camp. Each camper gets a backpack filled with many school supplies to get them started on a successful school year. We also donate dozens of unwrapped Christmas gifts to the RMM gift store every year. Parents and guardians get access to the gifts at very reduced prices for their children- all within the context of a festive dinner celebrating the farmworkers and their families. Thanks to all who gave items, cash or time to organize and deliver the materials.
English as a Second Language Class (ESL) This is a free program in collaboration with Grace Church, Millbrook. Our generous ESL volunteer teachers help students from the local community become more comfortable using the English language. There are posters throughout the community inviting anyone to enroll and attend at no cost. Childcare is also free and available during class time. The program is temporarily on hold due to COVID.
We have had as many as seven students and six children in the nursery on some evenings. Our students come from all over the world. Their homelands are duly noted; Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Uzbekistan and Morocco. This program began at St. Paul's in 2014 and provides a vital service to our community. Evelyn Garzetta, the program director, is responsible for all the ESL locations in Northeastern Dutchess County, started by Grace Latino Outreach in Millbrook, NY.
CROPwalk We join in annually for CROPwalk to support hungry people in Dutchess County & beyond.
Shriners Hospitals for Children Keep those tabs coming! We collected over 14 pounds of tabs last year. A single tab weighs .0104 ounce, so that’s a lot of tabs! The Shriners sell the aluminum to support their hospitals for children around the country.
United Thank Offering UTO (United Thank Offering) was founded by women in 1889 to support women missionaries. It has now become a worldwide effort of the Episcopal Church to meet compelling human needs and expand the mission of the church - for men, women, and children everywhere. There are so many things for which we can be thankful each day - beautiful weather, a safe trip, friends, etc. We are asked to put coins in a Blue Box in thanks each day for our many blessings. Each spring and fall on “Ingathering Sunday” we are asked to convert these coins into paper money (checks or bills) and drop the envelopes in the collection plate. If you would like to have a “Blue Box” just ask Marilyn Kirchner.