Society of St. Vincent de Paul

Inspired by Gospel values, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a Catholic lay organization, leads women and men to join together to grow spiritually- offering person-to-person service to those who are needy and suffering. Organized locally, Vincentians witness God’s love by embracing all works of charity and justice. At St. Joseph Church, our primary mission is to feed the hungry of our community through our food pantry in the basement of the church. The majority of our time and effort is in food pantry endeavors. We are able to help a large number of families because of low food costs of government programs, Harvest Hope, food drives, and you, our parishioners.

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Monetary donations through church envelopes, and the 5 SVdP boxes located in the church, together with your food donations (from food drives and the “I Care- I Share” food collections on the first Sunday of each month) allowed us to feed 5031 (an increase of 16%) families last year feeding a total of 11982 (an increase of 13%) people- a record number of people helped. 826 of these families helped were through home visits.

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Low food costs allow us to offer other forms of assistance, such as utility assistance. Every request for assistance is based on availability of funds and other factors agreed upon by our members. In 2023, we were able to help 323 families with assistance for a total of $72,890. In total, our St. Vincent de Paul conference spent $117,324 in 2023. It is because of the generous support of you, our parishioners, and the support of Msgr. Harris that we are able to do what we do.

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Meetings are on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM in the Ministries and Administration building. We welcome new members at all times. As our membership is aging, we particularly need younger members and ask that you prayerfully consider giving of your time.

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The help line number is 803-799-0761. The message states the times our pantry is open and when we take utility requests. The standard time for utility requests is the second Tuesday of each month between 5:45-6:30 PM. We have also initiated an email address where clients can request assistance. That email address is SVDP1945@gmail.com if any parishioner would like to request assistance. Parishioners may also call the church secretary at 803-540-1900 and she will notify one of our members or provide you with the phone number of a Vincentian.

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The pantry is open every Wednesday from 8:30-11:30 AM.

In closing, we encourage parishioners to avail themselves of our services. We assure you that all assistance is dealt with discretion and you need not fear requests being made public. Parishioners receive priority consideration when requesting assistance.