A Coalition for a Beloved Community

Mercy Ministry coordinators reflect on their ministry experiences. New mercy ministry opportunities are listed below the Mercy Opportunities section below. If interested in leading a mercy ministry, contact Ava Thompson.

Mercy Opportunities

Easy to Participate

Service

Parishioners are encouraged to look beyond themselves to people in our community and to share the love of Christ. Holy Cross does this by participating in the following outreach programs in our community.

Food Pantry

• Donate to year-'round packaged food drives, helping to fill shelves and the refrigerator at the Catholic Charities' Durham Community Food Pantry (DCFP). Place your packaged food donations in the bin located in the gathering space at Holy Cross Church. Urgent needs are listed at the top of this page.

> Contact: Ava Thompson

______________________

HC Backyard Garden (HCBG)

Option One: Volunteer time each week (June-November)  to help plant, weed and harvest vegetables grown in the HC Backyard Garden and prepare them for delivery, every Tuesday, to the Durham Community Food Pantry, for distribution to their clients.

Option two:

'Rent a Bed' (or two) to grow vegetables for your home use. The garden bed rental fee  $35 per 4 ft x 8 ft garden bed - helps cover the cost of seeds, mulch, replacement tools and other supplies. Garden 'renters' are welcome to help with the harvest as well.

Click here to read about the Holy Cross Backyard Garden ministry.

The Holy Cross Backyard Garden has 35 raised beds. Nine of those beds are our Sharing Garden Beds,  where we grow vegetables for delivery to the Durham Community Food Pantry (DCFP). We have been doing this for more than a decade, and clients at the DCFP very much appreciate the fresh vegetables. We welcome volunteers to help with pulling weeds before we plant, starting June 1, and to help with the harvest in late summer and early Fall. 

We will use Flocknote to sign up planting and harvest-volunteers. The harvest tasks include gathering the ripe vegetables, rinsing and packing the in the church kitchen, delivering to the Durham Community Food Pantry, and cleaning the kitchen after use.

Tasks include: weeding, planting starter plants and seeds, applying mulch between the garden rows, harvesting, and prepare vegetables for delivery to Catholic Charities' Durham Community Food Pantry (DCFP) (rinsing the vegetables and packaging them in the parish kitchen). .

We have been doing this for nearly a dozen years; the DCFP clients very much appreciate the garden-fresh vegetables; the garden members (who rent a bed for $35 per bed) enjoy the exercise, fellowship with other gardeners, and the fresh vegetables for their home use.

Enjoy backyard-style fellowship with other gardeners and gentle exercise as you grow and harvest vegetables for your home use and help with the Sharing Beds where we grow vegetables that are harvested and donated to the Durham Community Food Pantry (DCFP) throughout the summer. Their clients greatly appreciate the garden-fresh vegetables that we deliver each fall. Click here to read about the Holy Cross Garden Ministry.

• Volunteers spend a few hours a week during the growing season to prepare the 10 Sharing Beds, plant seeds and starter plants, and help with weeding during the growing season and harvesting in the fall. We have an irrigation system that provides water on a regular schedule to the growing beds and an electric fence around the garden to deter the deer
• Volunteers also help to harvest the ripe vegetables in the fall, and rinse and package them for delivery to the DCFP.

Option Two:

• Rent a garden bed or two in the HC Backyard Garden (HCBG), growing vegetables for your household's use: The $35 fee per garden bed (up to two garden beds per household) helps cover the cost of starter plants and garden supplies. Note: we follow organic processes in the garden beds; no chemical sprays, etc. We do have an irrigation system and compost pile .
• 
  
• Our garden season begins June 1 and continues into the fall.
  
  Grow seasonal fresh vegetables (May through October) in the HCBY Garden's 10 Sharing Beds and help with harvesting and preparing them for delivery every Tuesday morning to Catholic Charities' Durham Community Food Pantry. Enjoy gentle exercise and fellowship with other gardeners as you help with planting, weeding. harvesting and preparing the vegetables for delivery every Tuesday morning. E and enjoy fellowship during the growing season.
• You can also 'rent a bed' for your household's use as well. The $35 rental fee helps to pay for gardening supplies

> Contact: Ava Thompson

______________________

HC Backyard Garden

That's the new name for the Holy Cross Sharing Garden. Read about the name change here. 

Garden members 'rent a bed' to grow and harvest produce for their own use, and  help weed, plant, harvest, rinse and package for delivery vegetables from the 10 'Sharing Beds' where vegetables are grown, harvested and packaged each Tuesday morning, and delivered to the Durham Community Food Pantry that day.

Garden members  'rent a bed' to grow and harvest produce for their own use, and help weed, plant, harvest, rinse and package for delivery vegetables from the 10 'Sharing Beds' where vegetables are grown, harvested and packaged each Tuesday morning, and delivered to the Durham Community Food Pantry that day.

Garden 'rental' members are asked to control weeds in their garden beds during the growing season, and to clear and mulch (with fall leaves) their garden beds at the end of the growing season.

> Ten garden beds are available for renters each growing season at a cost of $35 per bed each season. The donation helps cover the cost of seeds, starter plants and other gardening supplies). Online payment link will be posted here soon. In the meantime, send a message Anna Rzewnicki at garden@holycrossdurham.org to let her know you would like to participate this summer. 

Garden 'rental' members are asked to control weeds in their garden beds during the growing season, and to clear and mulch (with fall leaves) their garden beds at the end of the growing season.

> Ten garden beds are available for renters each growing season at a cost of $35 per bed each season. The donation helps cover the cost of seeds, starter plants and other gardening supplies). Online payment link will be posted here soon. In the meantime, send a message Anna Rzewnicki at garden@holycrossdurham.org to let her know you would like to participate this summer. 

______________________

Adopt-a-School | Support is provided to the teachers, staff, and students at Burton Magnet Elementary School. The plan includes support for academic enrichment, behavior and achievement incentives, improved school climate, and college and career readiness.

> Contact: Ava Thompson

______________________

Families Moving Forward | Click here to read how
you can help Families Moving Forward in its mission to help families successfully transition out of homelessness. 
> Contact: Ava Thompson

______________________

Food Pantry | Participate in seasonal and ongoing packaged food drives to help fill the shelves at the Catholic Charities' Durham Community Food Pantry. Packaged food donations may be placed in the bin located in the gathering space at Holy Cross Church.

> Contact: Ava Thompson

______________________

Solidarity

Catholic Relief Services and Lenten Rice Bowls | Holy Cross participates in these annual global drives to support global relief services.

> Contact: Ava Thompson, socialaction@holycrossdurham.org

______________________

Durham CROP Hunger Walk |  Solicit pledges for the miles you walk in this annual act of solidarity with the poor, raising funds to help eradicate hunger, locally and globally. The 50th Durham CROP Hunger Walk will be on Sunday, March 24, 2024. Watch for  details.

> Contact: Debbie Hilliard

______________________

Quilting Ministry | Gather with others in the Parish Hall to make simple quilts for distribution to those in need, including our neighbors who live outdoors. No sewing experience necessary. If you don't sew or are not able to come to church to work on quilts on site, you can help by cutting fabric into squares at home and dropping them off for the sewing team members who will create the quilts.

> Meeting time: The Quilting Ministry has temporarily stopped meeting.
> Contact: Lorie Crump, coordinator.

______________________

Advocacy

• Durham Congregations in Action
• Durham Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods

Holy Cross has memberships in and regularly attends meetings of these local community organizations , keeping the parish informed of community engagement opportunities.
Contact: Ava Thompson

______________________

> Explore the full range of opportunities available through our Coalition for a Beloved Community.

> Contact Ava Thompson, coordinator, A Coalition for a Beloved Community

(Photo above): Several of our 2024 Confirmation class gave the HC backyard Garden ministry a head start by clearing weeds from some of the growing beds. A little time in the garden got the of one of the girls' Moms to 'rent a bed' for their household.

In the foreground: just a few of Holy Cross's 2022 Durham CROP Hunger Walk team members.  Holy Cross contact: Debbie Hilliard, team captain.