Outreach
Our faith and service doesn’t stop at the front door: St James has been serving the community for decades no matter if they are right next door or in another continent!
Local Outreach
Merrimack Community Food Pantry
The mission of the Merrimack Food Pantry is to provide local people in need with nutritious food, as well as household and personal care items. Our goal is to serve our clients in a friendly manner with dignity and respect.
Merrimack Community Food Pantry opens its doors weekly to those in need.
Clothes Closet
The Clothes Closet is open on Tuesday mornings from 9:30 am to noon. We are currently accepting donations of in-season clothing. Donations can be made during church office hours 8-2 Tuesday – Thursday.
The Clothes Closet is a used clothing boutique for people in our community who have a financial need.
In addition to serving the Merrimack community, we also give clothing to the Upper Room, and the Maine Economic Ministry (an outreach program supported by the United Methodist Church). We have also supported a minister in Africa and various individuals with special needs.
Brooke's Purses
In response to a boy’s post on Facebook that he had asked his mother if they could give her old purses away to less fortunate women, a woman named Brooke commented that she would have loved to have someone give her a purse when she was on the street. Brooke’s great aunt presented the idea to the St. James Women’s Group. A new ministry was born and has been going strong and growing since 2016. What started as “Purses for the Homeless” was renamed in Brooke’s memory after she passed away.
We collect gently used purses, fill them with personal care items and distribute them to shelters in Concord, Manchester and Nashua. So far, over 700 women in our area have been helped by those purses. In 2022, we filled and distributed 234 purses.
Global Outreach
The HUB
St. James UMC is the site of a HUB for UMCOR, United Methodist Committee on Relief. We collect supplies needed for cleaning buckets and hygiene kits. We assemble the kits or verify kits that were assembled elsewhere. The kits are transported to Mission Central, where they are distributed as needed. We conduct the hygiene kit drive annually during the month of April. We also have volunteers that sew pocket prayers – a nice reminder for people to know that our congregation is praying for them.
Dress a Girl Around the World (D.A.G.A.W)
Dress a Girl Around the World is a campaign under Hope 4 Women International bringing dignity to girls and women around the world since 2006. They want girls to know that they are worthy of respect and that they are loved by God.
The St. James sewing group that has been meeting on the third Thursday of every month from 1-3 pm will take a break over the Summer (May through August, 2024). Dresses are donated to the worldwide organization which distributes them to more than 90 countries around the world. Volunteers in our area have sewn and sent over 2400 dresses since we joined the movement in 2018!
For more information about the organization, visit their website https://www.dressagirlaroundtheworld.com/
Operation Care for Troops
Members of the Knitting Club at the Merrimack Library, the Our Lady of Mercy Knitting Group and members of St. James UMC have joined together to contribute hand knit scarves and hats to Operation Care For Troops. We also contribute handwritten cards to express gratitude and prayers of goodwill to our active duty service men and women. These and other items are packed at the National Guard Armory in Nashua three times per year and sent to our deployed military personnel.
Operation Care for Troops also welcomes donations of beef jerky, protein bars, single serving size packages of nut mixes and trail mix, and lip balm (no petroleum, please).
For more information about Operation Care for Troops, visit their website https://www.octnh.org.
CROP Hunger Walk
CROP Hunger Walks are locally organized walks conducted in various cities and towns throughout the United States. These events are designed to fundraise the worldwide initiatives of Church World Service, a faith-oriented entity dedicated to fostering equitable and lasting solutions to hunger, poverty, displacement, and calamity in communities worldwide. Following the conclusion of a CROP Hunger Walk, 25% of the proceeds collected are allocated back to the originating community, bolstering local endeavors in combating hunger.
St James has participated in the Nashua CROP Hunger Walk since 2018.
To learn more about Church World Service, visit their website: https://cwsglobal.org.