At St. Michael Parish, we all care deeply!
Saturday Morning Food Sharing Ministry
Through, for, and with Christ, our parish’s “Saturday Morning Food Sharing Ministry” was started during the summer of 2020 when we responded to a need for help from PRO LABORE DEI (PLD). Parishioners and school and RE families began donating a bag of food once a month for the local chapter of PLD for their Saturday morning food distribution to families in need. Thanks to the great generosity of TRADER JOE’S IN ORLAND PARK, who gives to an organization EVERY DAY, our parish ministry now receives perishable foods to sort and bag to give to PLD.
How can you serve in this “Saturday Morning Food Sharing Ministry” in our parish?
- By emailing Kelly Martinez at kmartinez@saintmike.com you can sign up to be a “driver” for a specific Saturday morning. Four signed up drivers meet in the parking lot of Orland Park Bakery at 14850 S. LaGrange Road in Orland Park at 8:35 AM. They drive to the back of the Trader Joe’s store and load 20-30 large boxes of perishable foods into their vehicles and bring them to St Michael’s small gym entrance on Highland Avenue.
- The drivers along with any other volunteers who come to the small gym at 8:45 AM work together to unload all boxes into our parish gymnasium (or occasionally the ministry rooms when the gym isn’t available to us). We sort through the boxes and organize the food and then create 60-90 bags of the various foods to be given to families in need. We load the bags into two or three vehicles and deliver them to Pro Labore Dei’s food distribution site at St. Stanislaus Parish in Posen (approx. a 20 minute drive). After the PLD team unloads the bags from our vehicles, we are on our way at about 10 AM, blessed and uplifted for the rest of the glorious day God has gifted us.
- Donate nonperishable food items anytime you think of it and are able to do so. You can bring a bag to the Highland Ave side of our parish by the small gym (black doors) on a Saturday morning between 8:30 AM and 9:15 AM. You can bring donations in a bag marked “For PLD” to our parish office any time, and Kelly Martinez will include it with our Saturday morning delivery to PLD’s local distribution site.
ALSO, CAN YOU DONATE BROWN PAPER GROCERY BAGS? – We are in need of brown paper grocery bags for our Saturday morning “Feeding the Hungry” program. If you have some to spare, please bring them to St. Michael and place them in the marked receptacle in the Narthex. Thank you for your donations and for supporting the hungry in our community.
ABOUT PRO LABORE DEI – Pro Labore Dei was founded on May 16, 1990 in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State of Nigeria – It began as a response to God’s call to Sister Stella-Maris Okonkwo to “Go out into the streets and slum areas where people are suffering and look after the poor.” She began the work with a few destitute in the Bere area of Ibadan with only a few Naira in her pocket.
PLD is a Charitable Organization that is committed to working with the very poor, the destitute in our society for their improvement. Our objective is to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, shelter the homeless, nurse/treat the sick poor and the aged deserted by relatives, to visit the imprisoned, be mothers to the orphaned and the abandoned children, educate the young poor whose parents cannot.
Our mission is to work, guided by His Divine Majesty, to redeem His people from destitution. With this in mind, we consciously strive not to rob the client of whatever little dignity he has left and we avoid publicity. Clients’ histories are treated as confidential. On no account should clients’ data or persons be covered by media publications. Our business is to restore again their lost dignity and self-esteem, another aspect of clothing. This clothing is to reflect on all areas of the apostolate, for in this is the actualization of our goal.
Pro Labore Dei Website – www.prolaboredei.org
PRAYER OF PRO LABOR DEI – By its Founder, Sr. Stella-Maris – God Most High, God of Pro Labore Dei, God of Wonders, We praise Your power at work in the universe. Thou Who order all things mighty, lead us in the Spirit of Jesus Your Son, to bring good news to the poor, the news that God cares, that God loves them; To tell the prisoners that they are no longer imprisoned; To tell the blind that now their vision is clear, that they can see because God leads them, To set the down trodden free, to lift up the marginalized, the oppressed of our nation, our world, to tell them that they can be free. Help us to be our brother’s keeper, our neighbour’s neighbor. That our joy may be in You and our joy may be full. Let Pro Labore Dei grow into a giant tree with leaves that never fade. Amen!
WHO CARES? – Who cares that I am Hungry? Who cares that I am Thirsty? Who cares that I am Naked? Who cares that I am Homeless? Who cares that I am Sick? Who cares that I am Dying? Who cares that I am Jobless? Who cares that I am not in school? Who cares that I am old and alone? Who cares that I am lonely? Who cares that I am abandoned? Who cares that I have nothing? Who cares that I have no one? Who cares that I feel like I am nothing? Who cares that I feel invisible? Who cares that I feel like an outcast? Who cares that I feel I do not belong? Who cares that I am depressed?
Who cares? Pro Labore Dei Cares. You Too Can Care!!!
