High School Kids Getting On Your Nerves?

Are you about ready for school to start again? Are your high school kids laying around the house, driving you up a wall? Send them to us! We need assistance on the third, fourth and fifth Sundays this month washing pots and pans at the Welcome Table. The shift is from 10:30am—3:30pm and while it's not the most attractive job ever, it does come with free pizza! We'll also take your husband if he needs the practice, or your wife if she needs to take her daily frustrations out on something other than you. Please help us fill our schedule for August!!

Call Cassandra at 212-627-2100, x205 to donate your kids. :)

Ability Xavier

Advocates for persons with disabilities and sponsors events about disability.
If you have parish disability-related needs, contact Kathleen Friel at (212) 866-1120, kf2105@columbia.edu.

Sunday Volunteers Needed!

Once a month on Sunday volunteers are needed to assist our parishioners with disabilities.

• Get more information here.

Honduras Companion Communities Project

Offering community-building and support for areas devastated by natural disasters and poverty. Parishioners visit and work with the communities, offering assistance for ongoing projects. You can make a donation to our project via Parish Pay. To join us on our next trip, or for more information, contact Brian Hotaling at bhtraveler@aol.com.

As always, thank you for your support !

Unemployment Support Group

If you know of a job opening, please be in touch with us so we can pass the opportunity on to our members.

E-mail Katherine Cleary, krcoff5th@netzero.com

Cloudy with a chance of RED!

It's that time of again, where the end-of-budget-year crunch begins (our budget year ends August 30th). The Mission forecast is cloudy with a good chance of "RED" as donations dry up during the spring and summer months. This year was also extraordinarily difficult grant-wise and we received less than 30% of what we expected from grants.

Please take a look at your own books (and in your hearts) and make a donation if you can to help us close our gap. We will be eternally grateful (though not too proud to ask again next year!).

Going Ever Greener!

We’ve recently taken several more steps in our campaign to green the operations of Xavier Mission. Check out our acorns of success!

• We’ve begun the process of recycling unusable donations of clothing through the Dept. of Sanitation Textile Recycling Program. Our unusable clothing gets sorted, distributed to needy individuals if possible and the remainder is turned into rags for industrial use.
• We’ve restarted composting at the Welcome Table through a private company that accepts many more types of compost, allowing us to recycle almost all of the food waste produced on Sundays.
• We’ve distributed reusable canvas grocery bags to the guests of the Customer-Choice Food Pantry. Several incentives will encourage them to bring back the bags each month and starting in August, we will no longer distribute plastic bags, preventing approximately 500 bags from hitting the planet each month—6000 per year!

Let us know if YOU have any ideas for how we can be better stewards of our Earth!!

Advocacy in Action!

While Xavier strives to provide the basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter to those in need, we understand that an end to hunger and homelessness will not come without visible action to change the policies and legislation that underlie these ongoing problems. To that end, whenever possible, we engage in letter-writing and phone call campaigns, rallies, and other actions designed to attract the attention of our elected officials regarding specific policy changes. We invite you to take part in an advocacy action and learn more about the root causes of hunger and homelessness. Together, we can hold our public servants accountable for the care and well-being of our fellow brothers and sisters

• HPNAP Suspended Until Further Notice - Tell Albany to End This Crisis!
• Update: Senate Moves Forward on $11.9 Billion Cut in SNAP/Food Stamp Benefits; Legislation Needs to Be Fixed Before Passage - read more
• For more information about current advocacy actions, please click HERE.

All Saints Clothing Room

Each Sunday, in tandem with the Welcome Table, the clothing room provides casual and business attire and toiletries to more than 60 guests. The volunteer shift runs from 8:45am—11:00am (you’ll be done in time for 11:30 Mass!).

• To volunteer, contact Bob or Ann Mary Mullane at Robert.mullane@gmail.com

• CLOTHING DONATIONS - PLEASE BAG ‘EM!

• For hours, donation guidelines, volunteer info, and clothing room updates please click HERE.

Hurtado Men’s Shelter

Xavier operates a homeless shelter seven days a week for 15 men, in conjunction with the Open Door & Olivieri Drop-In Centers.  Guests are provided with a light meal in the evening and breakfast in the morning. Volunteers are needed for the primetime shift (7:00pm—11:00pm) and overnight shift (8:00pm—6:00am).

• To volunteer contact: sfxshelter@gmail.com
• Calling all couples, bosom buddies, and dynamic duos!
• For admission guidelines, volunteer info, and shelter updates please click HERE.

On the second Saturday of every month, more than 100 families are served at our client-choice, shopping-style food pantry. In addition, the Pantry offers clothing, entitlement benefits counseling and various health screenings and information programs.

• To volunteer, contact Frank Kelly or Eileen Miller at (212) 944-1507.
• CALLING ALL PLASTIC FOOD CONTAINERS!
• For hours, registration guidelines, volunteer info, and pantry updates, please click HERE.

Life-Skills Training & Empowerment Program (L-STEP)

L-STEP is a 12-week course that offers enhanced life-skills training and one-on-one mentoring to currently and recently homeless men and women.  L-STEP helps these individuals overcome obstacles such as homelessness, addiction and poverty, enabling them to lead healthy, independent, and productive lives.  The program includes life-skills workshops, one-on-one mentoring, and group support and culminates in a “Speaker’s Night”, when participants share their stories of suffering, rebirth and hope with the community.

• To volunteer, contact Cassandra Agredo at cagredo@sfxavier.org or 212-627-2100, x205
• For program calendar, registration guidelines, volunteer info, and L-STEP updates please click HERE.