Contact:

Members of the St. Vincent De Paul Society 
Phone:    (301) 356.0868

Contacto en Español:

Miembros de la Sociedad de San Vicente de Paul
Telefono: (240) 485-4757

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Mission:

To grow spiritually as Vincentians, and to "seek and find the forgotten, suffering and deprived so that we may bring them God's love."*

*from our Vincentian prayer at every meeting

Urgent Needs for our Food Pantry due to the corona virus!!

The need for food continues.  We are asking you to help keep our pantry shelves filled by picking up items from our list below when you shop for your family. You may leave your food donations in the St. Vincent de Paul box in the Church lobby or in the boxes located in the St. Ambrose parking lot by the kitchen door of Fannon Hall.  These are the items that we are requesting:

• cereals 
• bags of rice and dry beans
• pasta and spaghetti sauce
• Maseca
• peanut butter & jelly
• soup
• canned fish/meat, such as chicken and tuna
• coffee
• sugar
• laundry soap and toilet paper

 

History

In 1883 in Paris, France, Blessed Frederic Ozanam and a group of 5 fellow students founded the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a Catholic lay organization to minister to the needs of the poor.  Soon conferences formed in other cities and countries, and in 1845, the first U.S. Vincentian conference met in St. Louis, Missouri.  In 1948, the parish of St. Ambrose was established in Cheverly, MD, and Father Ronald Fannon was appointed as the first pastor.  Just two years later, in 1950, 12 parishioners came together to form the St. Ambrose Conference of St. Vincent de Paul.  In addition to their primary mission of visiting the poor, one of their first duties was to assist the pastor in welcoming new families to the parish.  Over the years  the conference has welcomed many new members, initiatives and projects.

Today

We meet on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month for spiritual reflection and for updates and discussion on projects and cases.  These are our current activities and projects:

• visit families who call the rectory to see how we can assist them (Currently, due to COVID,  we are responding to people by telephone to assess their needs)
• maintain food pantry in Fannon Hall
• prepare and distribute food baskets for needy families at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter in partnership with the Ladies of Charity and St. Ambrose School families
• coordinate collection and dispersal of presents from the parish Christmas giving tree
• Coordinate with St. Ambrose community volunteers and the Prince George's County Warm Nights program to shelter 20-30 homeless guests in Fannon Hall for a week
• helped found Amigos Vicentinos en las Periferias, a group of Latino Vincentians from 3 local parishes
• COVID Relief Project - coordinated with Amigos Vicentinos en las Periferias to identify needy families locally and to prepare and distribute over 850 baskets of food to them
• Support Family to Familia parish twinning project with our sister parish in El Salvador (this project came out of St. Vincent de Paul)
• Cheverly Flood Relief Project - Coordinated with parishioners and the town of Cheverly to provide funds to families whose property had been damaged by the September 2020 flood