Backpacks of Love
Contact: Marty McPherson
Backpacks of Love continues to serve the increasing need of food insecure children in North Fulton and South Forsyth counties. In the region served by the Atlanta Food Bank, 1 in 5 children go to bed hungry. The USDA defines food insecurity as a lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members and limited or uncertain availability ofnutritionally adequate foods. Backpacks of Love attempts to alleviate food insecurity for local elementary, middle, and high school children. In the school year ending May 2024, we served / “gave a hand up” to an average of 215 students, for a total of 3,758 backpacks. In the current school year, we served an average of around two hundred families from September to December, delivering around two hundred bags biweekly. With our longstanding commitment to outreach, St. Aidan’s joins with four sister churches in this ministry: Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, Johns Creek Baptist Church, Alpharetta Methodist Church, and Zion Missionary Baptist Church. Each congregation provides food and financial support to the ministry. Two schools that are recipients of Backpacks of Love hosted food drives, including Taylor Road Middle School and Midway Elementary School. In February 2024, North Fulton Schools hosted a Super Bowl Can-A-Thon Challenge. Additionally, Larkspur neighborhood and Wyndam neighborhood hosted food drives this fall.
In addition to the food donations, the program currently spends an average of $1,000.00 per delivery, and some weeks, depending on food donations, BOL has spent up to $2,000.00 to meet delivery needs. Our usual shopping in preparation for each delivery consists of seventeen cases of several types of canned foods (for example seventeen cases of soup, seventeen cases of peanut butter, etc.). Our current monthly rent for our warehouse space (aka the Backpacks of Love World Headquarters) is $430 a month.
Thirty-plus dedicated volunteers from St. Aidan’s and other churches in the area enable us to continue to serve these food insecure children. Within each church supporting Backpacks of Love there are volunteers who make the donations and pickups possible. These dedicated volunteers shop for food, unload it, organize the warehouse, pack and deliver bags, and even write thank you notes to our donors. Since the beginning, St. Aidan’s has remained a fundamental institution in Backpacks of Love. As both the cost of living and food insecurity continues to increase, we depend on groceries and financial donations to run Backpacks of Love. We are always in need of additional volunteers and people to lead food drives. Please consider this as we start the new year!
Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/backpacksoflove.
Prayer Shawl Ministry
Contact: Laura Van Riper
We meet every Tuesday at 11 am but always check with Laura for schedule changes. The prayer shawl ministry is open to all levels whether you are a master knitter or a complete beginner. Patterns are available for those who wish to work on their shawl at home.
Click below to request prayer shawls; be sure to include who it’s for, and ideally why you would like the person to have it (at least as much information as you are comfortable sharing) — so that we may add an appropriate prayer to the shawl itself.
We always have prayer shawls on hand for immediate needs. We will also make shawls for specific people with upcoming needs (having a baby, upcoming surgery or treatments, etc) upon request. Donations of leftover yarn or donations to buy yarn are gladly accepted as well.
Community of Hope (Pastoral Care Givers)
Contact: Kathy Bump
The Community of Hope trains people to become Lay Chaplains and to form a Benedictine Community which gives pastoral care in the parish and throughout the community.
Blood Drive
St. Aidan’s sponsors two LifeSouth blood drives each year. LifeSouth is a community blood center, meaning the blood supply collected from our donors directly serves the needs of patients in over 30 local hospitals and Children’s Healthcare facilities. To give blood, you must be in good health, 17 years-old or older or 16 years-old with parental permission and weigh at least 110 pounds. A valid photo I.D. is required. Our next scheduled blood drive is Sunday, October 6th. LifeSouth provides each donor with an emailed cholesterol screening results. And each donor also gets a commemorative tee shirt in appreciation of their donation. For more information regarding our Blood Drives, please contact one of our two Co-Chairpersons.
The Drake House
Contact: Susan Basile
The Drake House provides short-term crisis housing, education and empowerment programs for homeless, single mothers and their children in North Metro Atlanta, designed to provide stability for the children and assist the family in working toward self-sufficiency.
We help maintain the property by volunteering to help clean empty apartments and tackling any landscaping tasks needed.
Episcopal Relief & Development
Contact: Mary Kathryn Nix
Episopal Relief and Development facilitates healthier, more fulfilling lives in communities struggling with poverty, hunger, disasters and disease. In addition, they offer resources and training to help communities prepare for disaster and provide emergency support so that they can make a full and sustained recovery.
Memorial Garden
Contact: Barry Mansell
The committee of parishioners is responsible for the overall administration and maintenance of the Memorial Garden for the church.