Saint Martin’s Ministries is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization under the direction of an independent Board composed of civic leaders from several religious persuasions. Saint Martin’s serves all men, women, and children without regard to religious affiliation.
Included in the Winter 2013 edition of Saint Martin’s Ministries newsletter is a special communication from Sr Patricia regarding her plans to become Executive Director, Emerita, and her reflections on 30 years at the Ministries. Please click here or check the Newsletter tab for a copy, if you haven’t read this important communication.
What’s happened at Saint Martin’s Ministries in the past twenty-four months?
Saint Martin’s fiscal year ends on 7/31 and in August we pull together year end numbers and get ready for the visit from our auditor. When the audit visit is over, usually late September or early October, we are busy supporting the committee that puts on our wonderful Arts Dinner fund raiser and starting to think about Thanksgiving in the Emergency Food Pantry. Sometimes the importance and meaning of our yearend numbers gets over looked as we move quickly from one task to the next in the fall. So here are some observations on our accomplishments for the fiscal years that ended on 7/31/11 and 7/31/12.
In the past two years 29 women and 35 children have called Saint Martin’s House their home. The standard measurement for homelessness is a bednight, one person in one bed for one night. Saint Martin’s House provided more than 12,000 bednights in the past two fiscal years. What does a bednight mean for the families?
- A clean, secure place to come home to each day
- A place where mothers and children can cook and eat their meals together
- A place where children can play safely and be certain that their toys and other favorite things will be there the next day and the day after that
- A place where clothes can be washed and transportation to the doctor or other important appointments is always available
- A place where staff and volunteers and other residents care what happens to each person living in Saint Martin’s House
The emergency food and thrift operations have both been very busy as our country, and especially our part of Maryland continues to recover from the recession. Average monthly number of families receiving emergency food grew from 277 in 2011 to 307 in 2012. Throughout the past fiscal year we averaged 12 new families applying for emergency food each month. Food clients used the vouchers they receive to purchase clothing valued at $58,000 at our very low thrift store prices.
In this same two year time frame 269 families received case management services to help them remain in their homes. Saint Martin’s administered funds from a variety of government and community sources to assist these families. Those funds totaled more than $235,000.
At Saint Martin’s Ministries we help low income mid-shore families meet basic needs of food, clothing and housing. Each year our work is supported by volunteer hours equating to 5 full-time staff members.
We are open at the Barn for Emergency Food Distribution and Thrift Store sales – Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings from 8:30 to 11:30 am and Wednesday evening from 6:00 to 7:30 pm.
What makes Saint Martin’s Ministries worthwhile is hopefully eliminating the choice between eating and paying rent.
Sister Patricia Gamgort
Executive Director