At the Heart of Giving – The St. Vincent de Paul Meal Program

The St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP) Society is dedicated to eliminating poverty and hunger throughout Milwaukee county. For many years, St. Robert volunteers have supported this important mission by cooking food and preparing and serving meals at SVdP’s northside meal program site in Harambee at 2600 N 2nd Street. Our parishioners cook food for the Harambee kitchen on the first Thursday of each month (food is dropped off at a parishioner’s home who then transports it to the SVdP site).

Since the resumption of in-person dining following COVID, SVdP has struggled to staff meal service with enough volunteers necessary to serve the approximately 120 individuals receiving meals each night at Harambee. A minimum of eight volunteers are required to offer in-person dining. The volunteer time commitment for evening meal service is approximately three hours: arrive at 3:30pm, prep until 5:30pm, serve until 6:15pm, clean-up until 6:30pm.

While St. Robert has historically provided volunteers to serve meals on the first Thursday of each month, individuals may sign-up for any day they wish. ANY MINORS 17 or under MUST be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Please use this sign-up link or contact parishioner Jake Hansen at jhansenwi@gmail.com for more information.

Join Our Parish St. Vincent de Paul Conference!

Poverty exists, although perhaps hidden at times, in St. Robert’s neighborhood. Several times per month, the Parish Office or the Central Office of St. Vincent de Paul is contacted by people in our area in need of financial help. The St. Vincent de Paul Conference is St. Robert’s main outreach to people who are in financial need. Members visit those who ask for help and distribute gift cards to a local grocery store or bus passes, as needed. There is an ongoing need for more members to help with this outreach. Interested? Call Neal Pease at (414) 690-4485 or pease@uwm.edu.

About those cylinders in church…

Loose change placed in the cylinders at each St. Robert Church entrance goes to our St. Vincent de Paul Society Conference and aids people in our area who are in economic need.

Who was St. Vincent de Paul?

Learn Here

From the Milwaukee St. Vincent de Paul Society

Cold Weather Warming Room

When outside temperatures drop to 10 degrees, Milwaukee’s St. Vincent de Paul Society opens a “warming room” for the homeless. Ongoing needs include:

• Volunteers. We could especially use volunteers right after the evening meal to help distribute the blankets, change of clothes, and toiletries to our guests and then again in the morning around 6:30 to help with breakfast/cleanup. And, anyone who is available during the night to help our staff with supervision would be welcome.
• Blankets, sleeping bags, sweatpants, toiletries, socks, underwear.
• Financial Support.
• Bag lunches, breakfast, soup, easy to heat up types of food. We usually serve the guests soup or something warm before they sleep, provide a simple breakfast, and a bag lunch to go. We welcome donations of food or volunteers to stay after the meal and help us prepare the food for the guests.

Please contact Jean Baumgardner, meal site manager, about volunteering or donating: (414) 339-5250 or svdpmeal@gmail.com.

Got Used Furniture?

Gently used furniture and household items in good condition may be donated to the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Please call Cindy at (414) 462-7863 to schedule a pick up.