St. Vincent de Paul Society
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a worldwide Catholic organization of laypersons whose members strive to live their faith by serving the less fortunate with love and dignity, without judgment or discrimination. As a way to help people escape the cycle of poverty, volunteers lend assistance to those lacking the basic necessities of life, offering a hand up and rather than a handout.
Serving the Poor with Love, Respect, Justice, Hope and Joy
The St. Ignatius Conference does not have a walk-in pantry. Therefore, members provide food assistance by making weekly deliveries. The food pantry is located in the basement of the parish office. We are a partner agency of OFB and provide USDA commodities to those in need. In addition to providing this service, we also offer utility, rent. motel assistance and other services on a case-to-case basis. Financially, the program is dependent on donations by our parishioners as well as donations from charitable foundations.
Most parishes usually have a St. Vincent de Paul conference. The Portland Council provides oversight to the various parish conferences. All requests are referred to the Portland Council who funnels it back to the respective conferences depending on location. Their main number is (503)235-8431. Clients are entitled to receive food assistance once a month and the other assistance once a year. There have been many exceptions to this rule as the need has increased tremendously with the rising cost of living in the Portland area.
We currently have approximately 20+ volunteers who tirelessly work towards the goal of living the gospel message by serving Christ in the poor with love, respect, justice, hope and joy. The number of volunteers usually doubles during the Christmas season when we deliver Christmas food boxes to 50 families within and outside of our community.
If you are interested in helping out, we are always in need of volunteers. You could volunteer for as little as 2 hours a month to 5 hours a month. Please email Rosa Fleming at our shared email address: svdp@sipdx.org.
