St. Vincent de Paul
Society of St. Vincent de Paul
694-0540
This is to introduce our ministry to those that may not know the works of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. We are a Catholic spiritual organization whose calling is to care for those in need. We are part of an international organization founded in Paris in 1833 by the Blessed Frederic Ozuman. St. Vincent is our patron not our founder. A parish group is called a conference; there are over 50 conferences in the Diocese of Buffalo.
There is a St. Vincent de Paul clothing bin located next to the Paper box in front of Kreuzer Hall. Please drop off clothing in the bin, not in front of the Church. Thank you.
Our group assists anyone who comes to us for help. Race, color, creed or membership in the parish is never an issue. We do work within a radius out from the parish so as not to infringe on other conferences and try to control people from getting help from more than one parish. When someone calls for help, we send two of our members to the person’s home to interview them so we can better understand what there need might be. We can assist with food, rent assistance, furniture, utility bill payments; we even have a pharmacy assistance program that is run from our downtown Buffalo location. We never give out cash money and we help on a quick need basis, usually one time, not long term.
To contact our group, someone just needs to call the rectory, 694-0540, and give their name and contact information. The rectory will then call the conference president who will assign two members to make the house call. At times we do determine that we cannot help an individual and will suggest another organization that may be able to assist them better.
We do very little fundraising. We depend on the generosity of the parishioners of St. Jude the Apostle to give to our once a year Sunday envelope appeal. We also accept those donations that are placed in the poor boxes located at all the entrances to the Church.
We have no food pantry at this parish but we work with the North Tonawanda Inter-Church food pantry on Ridge road in NT. When someone calls for food assistance, we will usually send them a gift card from a local supermarket. Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas we put together holiday food baskets for families that ask for help during the holidays. We have been in contact with the Outreach program that was located at Ascension parish and will work with them to continue their ministry.
Our group meets on the second Monday of the month. Because of the confidentiality of our work, our meetings are open to active members only. A conference is limited to between 15 and 20 active members. We have an unlimited amount of associate members that we call on for help when needed.