Meal Outreach Ministry
Meal Outreach Ministry accepts your donations in the Commons. Look for the box at the table near the Information Center and consider a donation to this important ministry feeding hundreds right here in Milwaukee. Thanks to those who donated toward the new commercial refrigerator and freezer (see photo) in the lower commons to facilitate the meal outreach ministry. It is greatly appreciated and will be put to good use.

Food Ministry Needs

Our food ministry is expanding with food contributions from caterers and stores. We are in need of purchasing additional cooling units, a new commercial freezer and a new commercial refrigerator. Some funds are available, but an additional $4,000 is needed for the purchase of both units. Any assistance toward this purchase is greatly appreciated. Presently our meal ministry is feeding about 2,400 people a month.

As we grow this ministry through the summer we could be feeding about 4,000 people each month. So, the additional refrigeration is greatly needed. Thank you.

Our Meal Outreach Ministry feeds people through the programs at Guest House, Serenity Inn, and Cross Lutheran Church. Recently a new program has begun supplying bag lunches to homeless outreach center Repairers of the Breach.

Monetary donations are greatly appreciated toward these ministries. Although much of the food is donated through the generosity of our congregation and businesses such as Metcalfe’s Sentry, there are times when food needs to be purchased. Your contributions toward this assures that there will be no shortage of food at any meal. Checks are to be made payable to St. Matthew’s and marked Meal Outreach Ministry or "M.O.M".

If you wish to donate toward any of these items, please make out a check to St. Matthew’s and mark it “Meal Outreach Ministry.”

Something New!
A new Meal Outreach Ministry called Just One More began this past October. This ministry involves picking up mostly leftover prepared food from caterers and parties. It is then repackaged and taken to inner city ELCA churches, meal programs and homeless shelters. Approximately 1,800 people per month are now fed and the potential to feed 2,400 + per month is available. We need your help financially and with volunteers. Please consider donating $10.00 per family for food and supplies. A basket will be on a table in the Commons. Thank you. What a wonderful blessing you are.

Volunteer help needed to grow meal ministry program
Food insecurity is a problem that faces numerous people in our central city and to a lesser extent people in the communities surrounding Milwaukee. Members of St. Matthew’s have been very generous in helping to feed the hungry through our meal ministries at Cross, Reformation, Repairers of the Breach, Serenity Inn and Guest House. Thank you for all that you do to support these programs.

Recently we have been able to get additional food through gifts of food from local preparers and distributors giving use the opportunity to expand our meal ministry. Through Outreach for Hope, an organization sponsored by the Greater Milwaukee Synod to help churches in need, we have identified churches and social services agencies with needs for food. Two examples of churches we are beginning to support are Florist Avenue and Hephatha. We hope to provide food for 300 – 400 people per week for these two churches – many of them children – and there are more churches in need.

The photos below were taken in March. The confirmation class with Pr Mary Martha Kannass at  Hephatha Lutheran Church are pictured in the first photo. Chris Capper and Jody Rodrian assisted with the project in March. (Click image to enlarge.)

Photos: ROTB sandwich-making, March 21
On March 21, volunteers made sandwiches and bag-lunches for Repairers of the Breach. St. Matt's prepares these meals twice a month. See more on ROTB below [here]. A few photos are below.

Photos of Cross Lutheran Meal Serving, Feb. 24 are in the online Photo Album [here]
More information about our monthly Cross Lutheran Meal Ministry is on this page [here].

Photos: ROTB sandwich-making, Feb. 21
On Feb. 21, volunteers made sandwiches and bag-lunches for Repairers of the Breach. St. Matt's prepares these meals twice a month. See more below [here]. Photos are in the online Photo Album [here].

Monthly meal ministries

Guest House - We provide preparers and servers for a meal for 80 men at the Guest House, a homeless shelter, the second Sunday of the month. We meet at church at 5:00 p.m. to carpool.

Serenity Inn - We serve a meal which we provide at Serenity Inn, a drug and alcohol rehab home, for the eight residents there, on the second Sunday evening each month. Volunteers eat dinner alongside the residents and enjoy some fellowship at the same time.

Our largest ministry at Cross Lutheran Church is on the fourth Wednesday of each month, at 11:30 a.m. for a luncheon. We provide all the food and servers for 350 people. Please sign up in the Sunday bulletins, or call the church office, to volunteer for food donations, or to serve, or both.

Bag Lunches for Homeless at Repairers of the Breach - Repairers of the Breach, a homeless outreach center on 13th & Vliet Streets, needs bag lunches for their clients. We supply those lunches on the second and 4th Mondays of each month These lunches will usually be made on Sunday mornings at church.

On Sunday, Jan. 10, there an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel featured the Repairers program for a much-needed rennovatation at their site on Vliet Street. The rennovation is being accomplished through donations. The article is on the Journal Sentinel website [here].

For information about these Meal Ministry Programs, contact the Church Office [here], or sign up in the Sunday bulletin or email Sue Swing or Heather.

Cross meal serving August 2009
On August 26, 450 (!) people were fed. THANK YOU for your donations of salads and desserts -- they are very much needed and appreciated! The group needing to be fed is growing. Photos of our meal serving at Cross Lutheran Church on August 26, 2009, are in the St. Matt's photo album [here]. More information about the Cross Lutheran meal ministry [here].