Serve 175 homeless and poor neighbors who eat and pray with us here at Calvary each Sunday morning. We scramble eggs, make homemade biscuits, prepare bacon and cheese grits, serve our neighbors, wash dishes, make coffee, and more. We volunteer to ensure our neighbors feel welcome.
Prepare for Sunday’s Community Breakfast by cracking eggs, placing bacon in pans, etc. on Saturdays. In this ministry individuals as well as entire families participate to ensure breakfast will be ready every Sunday morning.
Provide our homeless neighbors with an opportunity to select much-needed clothes, blankets, and toiletries Sunday mornings from 7 to 8 a.m. You can also volunteer to size clothes, put them on hangers, open generous donations from parishioners, arrange items, and organize the Clothes Closet so our neighbors can easily find items they need.
Tutor, collect school supplies, or mentor the children of Emmanuel Center. The Emmanuel Center seeks to break the cycle of poverty through education and strengthening young minds, bodies, and spirits within a context of Christian witness. Each spring Calvary volunteers host a carnival for the children and families of the Emmanuel Center.
Emmanuel Meal is a Christmas dinner for our neighbors who are experiencing poverty or homelessness. Calvary offers this meal on the third Monday of December every year. You can volunteer to cook, serve, clean up, and more. Sign up here.
You also can purchase paper turkeys for $40 each to subsidize the cost of this meal.
Attend Mental Health Court, provide incentives to participants, and advocate for the program. Defendants suffering from mental illness are given a chance to have their charges dropped in exchange for completing a year-long mental health treatment plan determined by the Shelby County Mental Health Court.
Be a Lunch Buddy by eating a 30-minute lunch weekly with a student. This mentoring relationship has proven to be a valuable asset not only for the student but also for the volunteer. Grizzlies Prep is a Title I charter school providing education to young men in grades 5-8. In addition, they prepare all students to excel academically while also demonstrating integrity through everyday life.
Provide and drop off lunch once a month for 10 unsheltered people who work or support development efforts with communication and promotional work. The Hospitality Hub connects individuals with the resources they need to begin their journey out of homelessness. Work Local provides job access and blight reduction. The Hub transports job-seeking panhandlers to clean up sites where they help reduce urban blight while providing workers with lunch, a day’s wages, and additional services.
Welcome, serve, host, and eat lunch with attendees. This ministry works with our police department and our district attorney to respond to trafficking and prostitution in our city by offering women a safe path to a new life.
Attend meetings and keep our parish informed and involved with MICAH. Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope (MICAH) provides community organizing with three initiatives: education, integration and intercultural equity, and economic equity. MICAH comprises over 50 churches and nonprofits.
Deliver nutritious meals through Meals on Wheels to homebound seniors. This ministry supports the independence of vulnerable seniors and families in crisis. Calvary’s route is the first Thursday of the month, is close to Calvary and shouldn’t take more than an hour to complete. Sign up online.
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is a grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence. Moms Demand Action campaigns for new and stronger solutions to lax gun laws and loopholes that jeopardize the safety of our families. Calvary volunteers attend meetings, help with publicity, keep Calvary informed, etc.
Calvary believes that God loves everyone. No exceptions. With this in mind, we pass out free hugs at the Mid-South Pride Parade, especially for those who don’t have relationships with their families. Calvary volunteers help with providing hugs and staffing the booth.
Work with the Mariposa initiative, welcoming refugees at the bus terminal who are passing through Memphis or serving refugees who come to Memphis to meet with mobile consulates.
Prepare meals, host neighbors, and assist with logistics. This program is dedicated to serving people experiencing homelessness by providing emergency shelter and meals here at Calvary on Sunday nights during the coldest months of the year—November through March—sharing the love of God through hospitality. Sign up.
Chop vegetables, fill containers, and sell delicious soup. This ministry sells nutritious soup made from scratch to parishioners once a month to help fund Calvary’s hunger initiatives.
Help with bingo and disco nights, painting and crafts, and a Fall Fest. Special Friends is a diocesan group that works together to minister to adults with special needs in our city once quarterly sharing dinner, worship, and activities.
Thistle & Bee, Inc.
Visit Thistle & Bee at the Memphis Farmers Market (Downtown) on the second Saturday of each month, 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. (April through October, and special holiday events), and at the Cooper-Young Farmers Market on the third Saturdays of each month throughout the year (winter hours 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.). You can purchase multiple flavors of premium granola, herbal tea bags, honey harvested from the T&B hives, and a number of other honey-based items, including gift boxes for all occasions. Products are also available at a number of retail sites including Curb Market, The Mustard Seed, St. George’s Book Shoppe, High Point Grocery, Babcock Gifts, The Dixon, novel, Cordelia’s Market, Baptist Medical Center Collierville, Baptist Women’s Health Center, and at various community events posted on the T&B Facebook page throughout the year. Volunteer opportunities include beekeeping, event planning, marketing, fundraising, and more. Market products are made by women who are victims and survivors of sex trafficking, prostitution, and/or addiction, and who are a part of Thistle and Bee’s two-year residential program. Learn more at thistleandbee.org.