We are a small Episcopal Church on the banks of the Rappahannock in Port Royal, Virginia. We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the first people of Port Royal, the Nandtaughtacund, and we respect and honor with gratitude the land itself, the legacy of the ancestors, and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do.

Outreach

A Busy Tues, July 18, 2023

Everyone was trying to stay out of each other’s way!

1. Preparing the Village Harvest for Wed, July 19- removing food from the truck, organizing it and bagging them. We have canned goods, fresh corn, both white and sweet potatoes, premium white chicken as well as frozen chickens. Some good stuff!

2. Painters were continuing to paint the outside of the Parish House.

3. Workers eradicating termites in the church. Catherine was working with them.

4. Later in the day we took 95 packs of notebook paper to Caroline Middle School for their School Supply Give-Away on July 29, sponsored by Caroline’s Caroline’s Promise. Thanks to all who contributed.

Village Harvest Prep Work

This is an example of the work that goes on behind the scenes. This happens to be May, 2023. One group goes to the Health Harvest Food Bank in Montross on the Tuesday before the Wednesday, Village Harvest to obtain the food. A separate team is waiting at St. Peter’s on this other team to return. This second group unloads the boxes, opens them, sorts and creates boxes for each client receiving food.

(full size gallery)

Back to Jamaica in 2023

In 2021, St. Peter’s fundraising contributed $3,000 for the school project. Here is the presentation from that trip.

A mission trip was organized to setup the school distribution. The supplies were sent ahead of the distribution.

In 2023 we are refreshing the supplies as well as moving to supply additional items, like computers. This year only Andrea, Ken and Laura will be going to deliver the supplies.

Background

Donate here

Victoria Primary School, formerly Victoria All-Age is located in North West St. Catherine about two (2) miles from the major town of Linstead in the farming community of Victoria. Victoria, along with the adjoining community of Banbury, where most of the children are from, has a populace of over 20,000.

Approximately 10 % of the adult population is dependent on farming for a living, some of the produce from this activity is sold at the Linstead Market and the remainder kept for domestic use. Another 30% depends on vending as their main means of livelihood, 40% is employed while the remaining 20% is unemployed.

The current parent population is very young with the average age being about 25 years. Most of them have attained secondary level of education but have not moved on to tertiary learning but instead have acquired a skill in order to become employable.

The school was originally a shift school, an elementary. It was built to house about 200 children. At the time of the 2021 mission trip school population it was 330

At the beginning of each school year, some parents often have financial challenges in purchasing items to send their children back to school. Some of these include the purchasing of school bags, writing books, pencils and uniforms etc. There are times when past students will assist in purchasing some of these items.

Honoring Women’s leadership on International Women’s Day

March 8 is International Women’s Day/ https://www.internationalwomensday.com “Celebrating women’s achievements and increasing visibility, while calling out inequality, is key.” “Collective action and shared ownership for driving gender parity is what makes International Women’s Day impactful.”

Let’s call out the achievements of women at St. Peter’s:

At St. Peter’s our key ministries are led by women. Andrea Pogue (Village Dinner, Village Harvest, Shred It, Sacred Ground, Jamaica mission), Cookie Davis (Buildings and Grounds, Sacred Ground as well as her work with historic Port Royal), Susan Linne von Berg (Village Dinner), Elizabeth Heimbach (ECW). BJ Anderson (Altar – Communion Bread), Jan Saylor (the above and anything creative), Denise Gregory (music) and Mary Peterman(music,art). One other lady to cite – Eunice Key who has moved to SC but who worked in most of the above ministries and named the Village Harvest and is in the collage. Diligent, hard working with abundant initiative to go along with it. Without them there would be a big gap.

Giving Tuesday, Nov. 29

Why are we pushing Giving Tuesday, Nov. 29 in support of our Village Harvest food distribution ?

1. There is a need.

In a sermon on September 22, 2019 Catherine wrote “I have had people who come to the distribution tell me that they wouldn’t have had enough food to get through the month without the food we provide.”

The Free Lance-Star reported in Aug., 2018, “about 31,000 residents of Fredericksburg and the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford consistently lack enough food to maintain a healthy, active life. They’re considered food insecure by the United States.” Department of Agriculture.

We are called to do like Jesus – and he fed people both physically and spiritually. Witness the stories of the Feeding of the 4,000 and 5,000.

2. There is a cost to recover.

We are averaging $170(average 10 months) or over $2,000 a year. Help us recover the cost and even add to our resources to do more.

3. The ministry has been successful.

8 years later we have served over 6,800 clients over 64,500 pounds of food. This year the average pounds of food per person is over 12 which at $6 a pound is worth $72. It is clearly one of our more visible and valuable outreach expressions from our church.

4. We have goals and a way for you to help.

Our goal in #Giving Tuesday is to raise 3 months support or $500.

• A $10 donation feeds 6 people, 12 pounds each. It provides 72 pounds of food and $430 in total value!

• A $20 donation feeds 12 people, 12 pounds each. It provides 144 pounds of food and $860 in total value!

Help us on Giving Tuesday, Nov 29

Two ways to donate:

1. On or before Nov 29 make out a check to St. Peter’s with “Giving Tuesday” in the memo line. Send to St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, P. O. Box 399 Port Royal, Virginia 22535

2. St. Peter’s PayPal account

Thank you for your support!

Markers for Caroline’s Promise completed~

St Peter’s goal was to collect 250 boxes of markers, eight to a box for Caroline County school children, to be distributed by Caroline’s Promise on Saturday, July 23rd at Caroline Middle School.

As of Sunday, July 17, we had 183 markers with another 67 to go. We reached 250 during the next week, in time for the distribution.

The photo shows the delivery to Caroline Middle prior to the event. Thanks to all who contributed!

Village Harvest – Behind the scenes, June 2022

We sometimes forget there is more than one team that makes the Village Harvest happen. These pictures were taken at the Healthy Harvest Food Bank in Montross on June 14, 2022, one day before the Harvest on June 15, 3pm to 5pm

Healthy Harvest’s mission is “To provide hope in the communities we serve through the right food and education . ” Serving six counties in Virginia’s Northern Neck and Upper Middle Peninsula as the only organization of its kind in the region, the food bank is committed to increasing its capacity to meet future demand, offer educational programs to children as well as clients with health-related dietary issues and increase the nutritional value of food provided locally and across the state of Virginia.”  One in eight neighbors in need struggle with food insecurity, making the services offered at the food bank critical for every struggling family, child and senior who deserves access to healthy, nutritious food.

The facility is modern. The picture shows the facility powered by solar panel. The food is gathered and this month placed in Helmut’s truck. (Cookie and Johnny who usually do this leg were away Wisconsin).

Thanks to Denise, Catherine, Andrea and Helmut who helped to gather the food in June.

The Village Harvest at June– increase in numbers

For the first six months of 2022, the Village Harvest served 543 people compared to 535 in 2021. Most of the shoppers came during first quarter through the 2nd quarter showed most of the increase. This is the first increase since 2019 during the first six months of the year

The actual pounds were down from 7,664 to 7,590. Pounds per person were also down from 14.33 to 13.98. However, we are above the level of the pre-pandemic period with the best figure then at 11.67. At $6 a pound, the 2022 figure is just under $84 in value.