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Rooted in the Gospel and Catholic social tradition, the St. Jerome Social Concerns Committee strives to create educational and service opportunities in concert with community agencies, calling us all to action for a more just and humane world. The Mission of the Committee is to provide our St. Jerome community with opportunities to fulfill their Christian responsibility of service to those in need, as Jesus Christ asked of us. New members are always welcome. Our meetings are usually on the fourth Monday of the month, September through June, in the Kevin Eidt Youth Room in the church hall. Social Concerns Committee minutes are taken and are posted below. Ongoing programs
Special programs During the year there are special appeals, such as a new or "gently used" book collection for Christian Community Action children and school supplies collection for the Carver Center children, used cell phones for the Domestic Violence Crisis Center, maternity tops for Birthright of Norwalk Mothers-To-Be, gift packs for Walter Reed veterans, an Earth Day program, Homefront Day-house fix-ups for needy Norwalkers, a coat collection for The Mayor's Coat Drive, an Emergency Preparedness information distribution, Make-A-Difference Day food collection, and community garden plots to grow vegetables for CCA Food pantry. CONTACT: Members: Detailed program information Parishioner Assistance If you know a parishioner who could use some extra support, contact us. We could arrange rides to appointments, supply a needed meal, and help with household tasks. Monthly Food Collection/Monthly Milk Collection St. Jerome’s food drives, which help to stock the shelves of Norwalk's food pantries, are held on either the third or fourth weekend of each month, as announced. Parishioners bring food donations in bags or boxes and place them in the back of the church or in the church hallway. Needed items are non-perishable boxed, canned, or bottled food items, including: Canned beef ravioli, beef stew, spaghetti and meatballs, or chili Our monthly food drives have been a source of food for over 30 years for the Christian Community Action (CCA) Food Pantry at 98 South Main Street in Norwalk. (Click here to see CCA thank-you letter to the parish.) For the last several years, we have averaged an annual collection of 15,500 food items - 3,500 from our Special Lenten Food Drive; 2,000 from the combined parish and REACH Thanksgiving Food Drives; and 1,000 food items each month from food drives the remaining 10 months. Because of this overwhelming generosity from the parishioners, in addition to donating to the CCA food pantry we also give 100 food items each month to Mid-Fairfield Aids Project (MFAP) at 16 River Street in Norwalk, 500 food items from both our Special Lenten Food Drive and our Thanksgiving Food Drive to St. Vincent de Paul Society's Food Pantry at 203 East Avenue in Norwalk, and the food items collected from the 6:00 PM Life Teen Mass each month to the Norwalk Emergency Shelter at 4 Merritt Street in Norwalk. Our REACH religious education students are faithful contributors to the food drives held from September through May. Each month one class in grades 4-6 stays after the REACH 10:30 AM Mass Sunday morning in the church hall to help unpack, sort the food items by type, and bag them. The sight of the children emptying donation bags and piling up stacks of soup cans, cereal boxes, peanut butter, and the like, genuinely reveals the meaning of "many hands make light work." When the sorting is finished, the food is loaded into the cars of the committed volunteers who deliver it to the pantries the next day. St. Jerome’s monthly Milk Fund Collection, a cash offering that purchases milk for local food pantries, was started in January, 2002. For the last several years, we have collected $3,300 each year. These funds provide powdered milk to CCA's food pantry, and whole milk to the St. Vincent de Paul Society's Food Pantry and to the Norwalk Emergency Shelter.
In 2009 record-breaking numbers of people are coming to Norwalk's food pantries seeking the most basic need - food. In 2008 the four food pantries to which we donate served over 1.2 million meals, a staggering increase from previous years. Thankfully, the parishioners of St. Jerome's do what Jesus taught us: feed the hungry. Education & Hope Collection for Guatemalan Children Julie Coyne is a parishioner who after college went to study Spanish in Guatemala in 1994 and ended up falling love with the children of that third world country. She went on to start a non-profit organization, Education and Hope. Julie Coyne’s mission in Guatemala is an official parish ministry. The help we give to her is part of our St. Jerome parish mission.The work of Julie and the foundation is that of providing a good education for over 100 children a year. Julie provides tuition for a private school education and supplements this with an after school program. She helps the children with clothes, school supplies and sometimes medical help. A lead editorial from May 2008 in the local newspaper, The Hour, praised Julie’s work as a “low-key, home-grown charity that is doing its good work in Guatemala ... Providing the means to an education and creating a library may offer the way out of grinding poverty in this tiny village where illiteracy is the norm.”
To make a contribution, send to Education & Hope, P.O. Box 486, Norwalk, CT 06856, or email us at guatemalahope@optonline.net. Please see the flier for Education & Hope for what your donations can mean for the children. Detailed information about what Education & Hope does can be found here and photos of the children helped can be seen here. Julie's work can be seen in several videos available on YouTube at Education and Hope - YouTube. You will enjoy seeing several excellent videos about the The St. Jerome Christmas Giving Tree is a source of help for children in need in Norwalk. Throughout the Advent season, parishioners select a 'gift wish tag' from our tree. The 'wish gift' is purchased, returned unwrapped and placed under the tree. Items requested include clothing, toys, and books. In December 2008, this annual tradition resulted in generous donations given to 77 children from 41 Christian Community Action families and 97 children in Julie Coyne's Education and Hope project in Guatemala. What can we as Christian caretakers of our earth and caregivers of the poor do to affect our environment positively? Concrete tips and vital information about “going green” are provided in a special newsletter sponsored by the Social Concerns Committee. Appearing periodically as an insert in the church bulletin, the “Going Green” Newsletter conveys ideas on how we can actively adapt our behaviors to protect the environment God gave us. Learn how to reuse, recycle, and reduce consumption in simple, friendly, doable ways. With every activity of our daily lives, we connect with the interdependent web of life on earth. The health of our environment is a reflection of the choices we make. Change must begin with us. Change begins with awareness of how the way we act affects the world community, especially the poor and those in need who are most at risk due to climate changes brought on by our use of the world’s resources. Going Green Newsletter Manna House, Norwalk Emergency Shelter St. Jerome volunteers prepare and serve the noon meal at Manna House, 4 Merritt Street, Norwalk, on the fourth Wednesday of every month. Tasks include preparing the main meal (main dish, salad, beverages, and desserts), setting the tables, and clean-up. The kitchen staff reports at 10:30 AM. Servers may arrive at noon. Mealtime is 1:00 to 2:00 PM. Anyone is welcome to join us. Please contact either coordinator if you can come, Kit McManamon at 846-2182 or Ebie Milton at 846-9667, ebiemilt@aol.com. Unwanted Furniture and Household Items Do you have unwanted furniture or household items? Contact Kathy Jacobs, 899-2680, Furniture Coordinator, Christian Community Action, Norwalk. Kathy receives requests from Christian Community Action visitors in need of furniture and tries to locate the needed items. Check with Kathy before you throw it away! All donations are tax deductible. Needed items include:
Widows and Widowers Support Group Monthly meetings provide love and support through service and sharing. Volunteers serve a full luncheon in the parish hall after a funeral service. They provide a full meal, help cook, and set up and clean up.
Homefront Day is a one-day, “hands-on” activity with enduring impact. Americares Homefront is a volunteer home repair program that provides repairs at no cost to homeowners in need. Since 1988 Homefront has revitalized more than 2,000 properties in Connecticut and New York, combining skilled labor, quality materials, and enthusiastic volunteers to help others in need. Americares Homefront supplies organizational support, materials, and insurance. The joy of helping a homeowner in need always makes Homefront Day an overwhelming success for St. Jerome parish. The camaraderie among all the participants carries over into our parish life. Homefront Day is one of the events that help make St. Jerome’s friendly, caring, and spiritual. Since February 2008 several women of the parish in St. Jerome’s Prayer Shawl Ministry have been meeting twice a month to knit and crochet shawls for the sick and homebound. Father Joe blesses these shawls, a prayer card is enclosed with each shawl, and he distributes them on his visits to the sick. The group also has donated 20 shawls to the Whittingham Cancer Center at Norwalk Hospital. Over 60 St. Jerome parishioners have received shawls and the recipients remark that they feel much comfort when wrapped in the shawl. In mid-February 2009 some of the shawls were displayed on the altar steps for all the parishioners to see. Minutes of the Social Concerns Committee |
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“Let the person who has two coats give one to someone who has none. Let the person who has food give to those who have none.
In addition to their extremely generous response to our monthly food drives and milk fund collections throughout the year, St. Jerome parishioners overwhelmingly have given to our Special Lenten Food Drive, initiated in 2005. Parishioners are invited to provide up to one week's worth of food for one hungry person who receives food from a local food pantry. A 
The need is so great that the program has grown each year and great effort is needed to keep it funded. Every year, usually in September, Julie comes to speak at all the Masses after Communion. In the past several years we have been able to raise about $10,000 to help her children. At Christmas time we also ask for gifts for her children to be placed under the “Giving Tree”. We have made Julie’s work the work of the parish. 
Started under the sponsorship of the Pastoral Council, the annual St. Jerome Americares Homefront Day takes place on a Saturday in early May. Some 20-30 parishioners of all ages take part in providing needed repairs on a house in Norwalk - minor carpentry, work on doors and windows, painting inside and out, general house and yard cleanup, flooring, plumbing, and whatever is needed to help a local neighbor in need. A recent St. Jerome Homefront Day made front page news in the local newspaper (click 
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