CommunityOutreach - First United Methodist Church of St. Cloud

COMMUNITY MINISTRIES

ELMER'S KITCHEN - Our church serves as the host site of Elmer's Kitchen, a ministry of the St. Cloud Ministerial Association. Each Sunday at 2:00 pm in the Family Life Center, a free nutritious meal is served to the unemployed or underemployed. Contact person is Carol Boroski.

History of Emer's Kitchen

Elmer’s Meal Kitchen Ministry got its name back in November 1999 when an anonymous man donated $25,000.00 for the sole purpose of providing a soup kitchen for the homeless, lonely elderly people, unemployed and under employed people in our community of St. Cloud and with the community churches working together to cook, serve and clean up the meals. It was decided that the Family Life Center at the First United Methodist Church St. Cloud would be the location and Carol Boroski would be the coordinator who would get the churches involved and the needy people coming. On the first Sunday in January 2000 we served our first 5 people and with second helpings a total of 9 meals. Today we are serving between 50 to 60 people and serve 90 to 110 meals including second helpings and meals to go.

THE ST. CLOUD FOOD PANTRY - Many of our members assist at the local food pantry, and our church has a quarterly food drive to help fill the shelves. Contact persons are Helen Combs and Ginny Parsons.

The Florida 2-1-1 Network is a cooperative effort of the Florida Alliance of Information and Referral Services and the United Way of Florida to fulfill the mandate of SB 1276, adopted by the Florida State Legislature in 2002, to make 2-1-1 available to every person in Florida. The Network is a collaboration of the eleven active 2-1-1 regional and local call centers that currently serve 33 of our 67 counties, providing 2-1-1 access to 75% of our population, and handling over 500,000 calls per year. Eight additional call centers are under development.