St. Albert the Great Ministry Overview – Society of St. Vincent de Paul
MISSION:
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SSVP) is an international Catholic organization whose mission is: To live the Gospel message by serving Christ in the poor with love, respect, justice and joy.
VALUES:
- See Christ in anyone who suffers
- Come together as a family
- Have personal contact with the poor
- Help in all possible ways
IN OUR PARISH
The SATG conference of SSVP serves people in our neighborhood experiencing poverty. We serve by providing food hampers, financial support, and occasionally household items for those in need throughout the year, and with a special food hamper and gift program for Christmas. We collect food through food drives and donations, and when required do our own shopping with our team of bargain hunters. We are blessed to have strong support of financial donations from our parishioners as well. Members try to respond to requests for furniture and other household items from spare items we and our friends might have, although we have no ability to stock those items. We do home visits with our families to share the love of Christ and to ensure support goes where it is needed most. We meet once a month to plan and discuss the duties of our Society. We have about 80 members in our conference.
We serve in our parish communities of McKenzie Lake, McKenzie Towne, Copperfield, New Brighton, Douglasdale, Douglas Glen, Cranston, Auburn Bay, Mahogany, Seton, and in our adopted communities of Penbrooke, and Applewood.
Our community of schools strongly supports us, operating several food drives throughout the year, and with food, gifts, and volunteers for our Christmas hamper program. Our schools include St. Albert the Great, St. John Henry Newman, Monsignor Smith, Christ the King, Prince of Peace, Divine Mercy, St. Isabella, Our Lady of the Rosary, St. Marguerite, St. Gianna, Bishop O’Byrne and All Saints.
Looking back at 2024, we can all be very proud of the charitable works we accomplished with your help allowing us to assist the many humble families that reached out to us in their time of need.
Here is a snapshot of what we did:
December 2024
Hampers delivered: 267
Adults served: 594
Children served: 509
2024 Totals
Hampers delivered: 876 (in 2023 we delivered 765)
Adults served: 1756
Children served: 1350
Emergency food hampers are our primary service. However, with your generous help St. Albert the Great parishioners, we were able to help several families avoid utility disconnect and avoid eviction, which in our current climate in Calgary is life altering when an eviction happens. We helped several families with backpacks and school supplies as well as providing some household items. It was the right thing to do and with your kind support we were able to do just that.
St. Vincent de Paul slogan: Our Care is an act of love.
CONTACT:
If you wish to join the SATG conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, or if you know someone who needs help, please contact the Parish Office at 403 257 6054 . If you’d like to make a donation, we accept e-transfers at svdp.satg.donations@gmail.com (please include your name and address for a tax receipt), or envelopes are available in the church narthex.