About St. Peter’s Episcopal’s Village Harvest
“I enjoy being a part of a team in our mission “To Do God’s Will”. “I think that our community is learning that we at St. Peter’s CARE and desire to share God’s love with our neighbors.”
The Village Harvest is St. Peter’s Episcopal’s monthly food distribution in our community in Caroline County begun in November, 2014. We provide a combination of fresh produce, meats canned goods, paper goods and recipes. While the Fredericksburg Food Bank provides food deliveries monthly to Port Royal, we found there was an interest for a more frequent distribution. In particular we wanted to provide more fresh produce as well as recipes and other hints to make better use of food resources. 
Over its 4 year life it has provided two main benefits for our clients:
1. Food for those who are being challenged economically. Funds saved from purchasing food can go toward other necessities. We have a variety of clients ‐ widows, single parents, senior adults on limited fix income, unemployed, working poor, people experiencing a crisis.
The Free Lance-Star reported in Aug., 2018, “about 31,000 residents of Fredericksburg and the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford consistently lack enough food to maintain a healthy, active life. They’re considered food insecure by the United States Department of Agriculture. That means there are more local people who have trouble putting food on the table than the entire population of Fredericksburg. They are teachers and service workers, first responders and retail employees—and many of them work several jobs, which often means they make too much for government assistance.”
2. Food for those who lack transportation to get it. We draw clients from Caroline and Essex counties. There are no food store in Port Royal except for fast food establishments . People have to venture to King George or Bowling Green 10+ miles away and there is also no public transportation. 
We have found that the ministry is also important to our members:
Four Years of the Village Harvest
- In the 3 years from 2015-2018, clients served rose 734 in 2015 to a high of 1,371 in 2017. It has scaled back to 1,064. During 2018, we stopped calling to remind people of the harvest. Our core group now is about 120 people per month, the ones who are benefiting constantly each month.
- Foods supplied have consistently increased over the period from 4,355 pounds to 12,744 pounds in 2018.
- More food, less clients has meant that the average pounds distributed to each person has doubled from 6 to 12 pounds. At $6 of value per pound, that means the average client receives over $70 of food per month!
- The costs have accelerated as we expand our food purchases. In 2018, we are projecting costs over $2,300. The average per month is $192. This compares with $153 in 2017.
The food is a mixture of fresh produce from the Northern Neck Food Bank and donations from the church. The parish contributed other non-perishable products, such as chicken broth, beans, rice, spaghetti and sauce, paper products, tuna, peanut butter, etc. Approximately 20 people per month plan, purchase and serve food from a congregation of 60.
“Jesus asks us to help people not as fortunate as we are. He tells us to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. Everybody will need some sort of help in their lives at some point.”
Looking Ahead…
During 2016 we renovated our kitchen located in our Parish House to carry out current food ministries as effectively as possible and to widen the surrounding community outreach. To that end, we were awarded a $15,000 grant from the National Episcopal Church’s United Thank Offering in 2015 and added another $13,000 +internally to complete the work.
We are looking at ways to integrate our kitchen even closer to our community of Caroline and Essex counties and with the needs of our client. The community of Port Royal is in a food desert, an area which healthy fresh food is not readily available to the residents. The nearest grocery stores are over ten miles away and there is no public transportation.
In the past three years we have prepared and served Community Dinners (shown above) for people in order to address the issues of food deprivation and to promote the social interaction in the area. We have served meals twice in 2016 to those who specifically come to our food distribution and provided recipes to help cook the foods they were receiving. We have handed out School supplies and provided information on local social services.
Cooking classes are another possibility we are considering. Along with these classes we would provide related education on related topics such as nutrition, food storage and preparation.
About St. Peters
We are a small Episcopal church in Caroline in the village of Port Royal with a population of about 125. We have approximately 70 members with a Sunday attendance of 40.
Port Royal was founded in 1744 along the Rappahannock River and grew originally out of the need for warehouses to store produce from inland planters.
The church was founded in 1835 when the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia wanted to organize churches in growing villages of Virginia.
Today, we respond to Christ’s love by sharing our God given talents and gifts through spiritual growth, liturgical worship, fellowship, service and Christian education.
The joy of our life in Christ is enriched as we share God’s healing spirit in the community in which we live. We see sharing food as the major way that we, as St Peter’s, are proclaiming God’s love out in the world.
Our Village Harvest food is an evolution of our food ministry and what we are already doing.
- From 2011-13 we served over 100 people at 7 Community Dinners in the Port Royal fire hall closer to the end of poverty stricken end of town. These dinners have helped us break down some of the social barriers that have kept the people in our community apart.
- We serve approximately forty people from our church and our community each month at the ECW (Episcopal Church Women) Village Dinner
- During 2013-2014, we fed the Caroline County football team each fall as part of a joint ministry with other county
churches. - The Virginia Cooperative Extension Service has used our kitchen to teach others about how to prepare healthy foods (Foode Fridays). An average of ten people each month have attended this event
“I help with Village Harvest because we get to know the people we help. These folks become friends not just a number. It just makes me happy that we can help in some small way to make things a little easier or better for them.”
Your Turn!
Our goal in #Giving Tuesday is to raise 6 months support or $1,200.
- A $10 donation feeds 6 people, 12 pounds each. It provides 70 pounds of food and $420 in total value!
- A $20 donation feeds 12 people, 12 pounds each. It provides 140 pounds of food and $840 in total value!
- Donating $200 puts you and or your organization into the “Village Club” for special recognition since you have covered the food for one Village Harvest!
How to make a donation?
2. MAIL. Send a check to St. Peter’s Church, P. O. Box 399 Port Royal, Virginia 22535 with #Giving Tuesday in the memo line together with our thanks for your support!
Either way we appreciate and thank you for your support and investment in our food ministry.