Avenue B Harm Reduction is a non-profit serving Saint John's marginalized through their Waterloo Street location and in the community.
Since 2011, Our Lady of Good Counsel parishioners have served soup and baked goods to Avenue B for distribution. Please see below for the story of this outreach ministry.
Outreach continues throughout COVID-19.
Individuals or teams bake cookies and treats at home, at their cost, and deliver them every week. It is done on a rotation where an individual or a team's turn occurs about once every 2 - 3 months.
Changes were required for soup making. During COVID-19 restrictions, groups of men and women may not gather at the H.O.P.E. Centre kitchen.
Currently, individuals are making the soup at home. Costs have also shifted from the parish collection to those individuals making the soup. However, these individuals can submit their receipts for an in-kind charitable tax receipt.
Thank you to all our parishioners for their varied contributions throughout the year.
These have included:
We have also had parishioners volunteer time to help out in the Avenue B office.
This is all part of our outreach to those in need and marginalized.
If you would like to learn more about or be more involved in this outreach ministry, please contact Beth Wilson through the H.O.P.E. Centre office (506-653-6875).
Terri Chouinard grabbed the torch some time ago to see where we might make some difference to the Avenue B organization and their clients. Avenue B was formerly named Aids Saint John, see their story about their name change.
Her first initiative was baking cookies. Since the spring of 2011, at the start of each week, either an individual or team of individuals have delivered around 10 – 12 dozen cookies or sweets for distribution to their clients.
The second initiative was Terri’s vision of a Soup Pot Day. Since the fall of 2011, once a month a group of men and women gather in the HOPE Center kitchen to prepare, cook, cool and package soup for distribution to the Avenue B clients.
These have nearly 40 people hands on, providing food to the marginalized and those in need.
An even larger group of parishioners are involved in this ministry who may not fully appreciate the importance of their contributions. Although the bakers contribute the cost of baking the sweets, the source of funding for the Soup Pot Day comes from the monthly collection for the poor and needy. Although we shop around to get the best prices on the soup items, we still need to spend on average $150 dollars each month. So if it wasn’t for all of your kind and generous contributions to this monthly collection, these efforts would probably not happen. It is important for you to know that parish donations are feeding the poor and marginalized, a corporal work of mercy in Christian charity.
Thanks to all of our parishioners and supporters taking an active role in this outreach ministry, either hands-on or through your donations, or both. Keep up the good work!