St Edna Community Table

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me” Matthew 25:35

The first summer of providing dinners once/month (in conjunction with other Arlington Heights area churches) was hosted by the St. Edna Community Table Team in 2014. For the summer seasons since 2015, we hosted dinners twice/month on the first and third Sunday evenings.  We warmly welcomed other St. Edna parish ministry groups to sponsor the dinners.  This is a wonderful way for our parish community to reach out in service to those who are less fortunate.

The 2020 & 2021 Seasons are Very Different

We have started our eighth season, but the Covid-19 Pandemic is still in effect.  PADS sites have been closed since March 2020.  Thanks to many generous donations, Journeys has been housing as many as 120 homeless clients at a time in two local hotels.  Most of the PADS site churches and other churches, like ours, have been providing meals for the clients living in the hotels.  St Edna Community Table has been handling dinner once a month for these clients even after the usual SECT season ended.  A special thanks to the wonderful parishioners who have been helping us by providing hot baked potatoes for our dinners during the ‘off’ season.

Beginning in May we started up our regular season and are offering ‘ToGo’ dinners to help clients who, for whatever reason, are not staying in the hotels funded by Journeys.  We are also continuing to provide approximately 80 dinners to the hotel clients.  We are scheduled to serve dinners on the 1^st and 3^rd Sundays from May-September (excluding May 2^nd).  That will be a lot of meals, but we feel that St Edna is able to manage this because of the wonderful support from our parishioners.

We ask for continued prayers for this ministry in these uncertain times. If you would like to help financially, the alms received on the third Sunday of most months benefit St. Edna Community Table or you can send donations directly to the office and indicate that the donation is for SECT.  We have set up a web page using Sign-Up Genius to allow our sponsoring ministries and interested parishioners to sign up to contribute key items, like baked potatoes, sack lunches, etc. for our dinners.  

Here's how it works in 3 easy steps:

1) Enter this link to see our SignUp on SignUp.com: https://signup.com/go/bDdNkgb

2) Review the options listed and choose the spot(s) you like.

3) Sign up! It's Easy - you will NOT need to register an account or keep a password on SignUp.com

That is a lot of change for one season, but we have adapted and here is a recap of our events so far.

• On May 1, 2020 - provided 64 meals to the PADS clients in the hotels.  We ordered food from Big Ange’s.
• On June 7, 2020 - provided meals for 90 PADS clients in the hotels.  We ordered the individual meals from Nino’s.
• On Jun 28, 2020 - provided meals for 57 PADS clients in the hotels.  We ordered chicken from Jewel and purchased sides from GFS and assembled meals ourselves.
• On July 5, 2020 - provided meals to 52 PADS clients in hotels and 25 meals to clients who came through 'drive through'.  Gardening for God provided pre-packed lunches for our ToGo clients.
• On July 19, 2020 - provided meals to 50 PADS clients in hotels and 30 meals to clients who came through 'drive through'. WOSE 5 provided pre-packed lunches for our ToGo clients.
• On Aug 2, 2020 - provided meals to 50 PADS clients in hotels and 53 meals to clients who came through our 'drive through'.  WOSE 4 and Human Concerns generously provided baked potatoes for our dinners and pre-packed lunches for our ToGo clients.
• On Aug 16, 2020 - provided meals to 50 PADS clients in hotels and 60 meals to clients who came through our 'drive through'.  Worship Ministrey provided baked potatoes for our dinners and pre-packed lunches for our ToGo clients.
• On Sep 6, 2020 - provided meals to 38 PADS clients in hotels and 59 meals to clients who came through our 'drive through'.  WOSE 6 and several enthusiastic parishioners generously provided baked potatoes for our dinners and pre-packed lunches for our ToGo clients.
• On Sep 20, 2020 - provided meals to 49 PADS clients in hotels and 62 meals to clients who came through our 'drive through'.  The choir generously provided baked potatoes for our dinners and pre-packed lunches for our ToGo clients.
• On Oct 11, 2020 - provided 88 meals to the PADS clients in the hotels.
• On Nov 1, 2020 - provided 94 meals to the PADS clients in the hotels.
• On Nov 29, 2020 - provided 108 meals to the PADS clients in the hotels.
• On Jan 3, 2021 - provided 107 meals to the PADS clients in the hotels.
• On Feb 7, 2021 - provided 122 meals to the PADS clients in the hotels.
• On Mar 7, 2021 - provided 116 meals to the PADS clients in the hotels.
• On Apr 30, 2021 - provided 115 meals to the PADS clients in the hotels.
• Sun, May 16, 2021 - Served 115 meals (baked potatoes & sack lunches provided by Gardening for God)
• Sun, Jun 6, 2021 - Served 132 meals (baked potatoes & sack lunches provided by Food Pantry Ministry)
• Sun, Jun 20, 2021 - Served 138 meals (baked potatoes & sack lunches provided by WOSE 5)
• Sun, Jul 4, 2021 – Served 133 meals (baked potatoes & sack lunches provided by parishioners)
• Sun, Jul 18, 2021 – Served 148 meals (baked potatoes & sack lunches provided by WOSE 6)
• Sun, Aug 1, 2021 – Served 118 meals (baked potatoes & sack lunches provided by Worship Ministry)
• Sun, Aug 15, 2021 – Served 118 meals (baked potatoes & sack lunches provided by Worship Ministry)